New Japanese school opened in Tangerang

TANGERANG, West Java (JP): Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro opened the Jakarta Japanese School yesterday in Pondok Aren.

Japanese expatriates do not need to worry about their children's education anymore when they are assigned to Indonesia, the minister and Japanese ambassador Taizo Watanabe said.

The Japanese school is one way to provide international school services to ensure that expatriates' children acquire the same standard of education as at home, Wardiman said.

Japanese students here can also be free from worry, Wardiman said.

"It is for these essential reasons that the Government has always lent its full support to the concept of international schools for the expatriate community," he said.

The school, with a 6,820-square-meter sports field, is in the Bintaro Jaya housing complex, where the British International School is also located.

The Japanese school has 1,265 students following kindergarten, elementary school and junior high school classes.

Students sang Japanese and Indonesian songs at yesterday's ceremony, which ended with a dynamic traditional dance, the Saman, from Aceh.

The rapid dance featuring junior high school students was "very good," a visitor from Aceh said.

The Japanese school was moved from its former site in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, in April.

It was founded in 1969 with 11 students in a rented house in Tebet, South Jakarta.

PT Jaya Obayashi began building the new school in 1994 which was designed by Pacific Consultants International.

The three-story school, run by the Jakarta Japanese School Maintenance Foundation, has two swimming schools, two gymnasiums and four music rooms. There are also two "discussion rooms," halls and meeting rooms.

A small amphitheater, with a map of Indonesia as its focal point, is in the playground.

Wardiman and Watanabe praised the school for exposing its students to Indonesia through Indonesian language sessions and cultural exchanges with local students.

"As you have been taught in school, Japan plays an important role in the world. For this reason we must promote good relations with other countries, particularly in Asia," Watanabe said.

Cultural exchanges involving the Japanese students "make me very happy," Watanabe said.

The exchanges included a camping trip in September with students of the private Al Azhar Islamic school. This was where the Japanese students first saw the Saman dance.

"My body was aching all over when we first practiced it," one of the dancers, Mai Tokusa, said.

Watanabe told the students he hoped their school years in Indonesia would give them an important memory of an experience which they could not get in Japan.

Keita Ono, the head of the students' organization, said the students were "proud" of their responsibility to help preserve good relations between Japan and their host country.

Tangerang regent Saifullah Abdulrachman said the good international schools in the regency would "hopefully drive us to build better schools for our children." (anr)