Fun events to mark Education Day
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Graffiti, normally a misdemeanor, will be perfectly legal for a day as the Jakarta administration allows teenagers to bring to life 43 giant concrete piles supporting overpasses from Cawang, East Jakarta, to Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
The painted murals, which will involve about 430 talented junior high school students are part of the Education Festival 2005 held in conjunction with National Education Day on May 2.
Split into groups of 10, the students will be assigned to clean up a pile area and decorate it with paintings with science and education themes.
"Governor Sutiyoso has given the nod to the Education Festival 2005. We will immediately follow it up with more detailed preparations," City Elementary Education Agency head Sylviana Murni said on Thursday.
Sutiyoso had expressed his concern that most piles under overpasses in the city looked dirty and were choked with advertising and "scribbling".
"We will also organize a massive painting session involving 4,000 students from elementary and junior high schools on a four- kilometer long canvas. The session will be held on May 1 at the Cibubur camping ground, East Jakarta," Sylviana said.
The session was expected to create a new record with the Indonesian Museum of Records (Muri) as the longest-ever canvas painted by the most artists.
The administration will also hold a beauty pageant for fifth graders and second-year junior high school students.
Third and sixth grade students would not take part because they would be preparing for final exams, Sylviana said.
The event, Smart Student of the Year 2005, will also require participants to pass tests on physics and technology prepared by noted physicist Johannes Surya, she said.
The agency is inviting companies to sponsor the programs, especially those with businesses involving education and would target publishing houses, dairy product manufacturers and computer software and hardware makers.
Teachers, meanwhile, could take part in a writing competition and a seminar on education, Sylviana said.