Provinces' good science students

Provinces' good science students

It was a great surprise to read news of the brilliant
achievement of the Indonesian Physics Olympiad Team (TOFI),
consisting of eight senior high school students, which
unexpectedly emerged as top winner in the fourth Asian Physics
Olympiad (APhOIV) held in Bangkok, Thailand, from April 20
through April 29 (Kompas, May 2).

The Indonesian team won six gold medals and two honorable-
mention awards. Among the winners of gold medals were students
from two state high schools -- from Yogyakarta and Denpasar,
Bali, and four from private high schools, one each from Regina
Pacis, Bogor; Xaverius I, Palembang; Taruna Nusantara, Magelang
and Sedes Sapiantiae, Semarang.

The two winners of honorable-mention awards (an award
recognizing future winning potential) were from Jambi and
Surabaya.

Apart from winning gold medals, other awards of distinction
were won: the Special Prize for Most Creative Solution in
Experiments, won by Rangga Perdana of Taruna Nusantara private
high school of Magelang; the Best Result in Theory, won by
Widagdo Setiawan from a state high school in Denpasar, Bali and
the Best Result in Experiments, won by Bernard Ricardo of Regina
Pacis private high school of Bogor (Kompas, May 2).

A remarkable feature in this context was the absence of cities
like Jakarta, as the nation's capital, and Bandung as the renown
education center -- not represented by successful contestants
from high schools there.

At this point, Kompas, in its editorial of May 3, remarked
that our sense of pride in the victory of the students was all
the greater because the high schools whence the winners hailed
were from the provinces. This attested to the potential of outer
regions to be represented by talented students in international
competition in specific branches of basic science, given an
opportunity and proper guidance and training.

S. SUHAEDI, Jakarta