SIS believes in diversity among students

The Jakarta Post Jakarta

The six-year-old blonde girl said school was a place where she could learn and meet new friends, especially those from different backgrounds and nationalities.

"I have no difficulty coping at school," said Setia, half- Dutch and half-Indonesian, talking about the Singaporean International School (SIS).

Diversity is the theme of the school, whose walls are decorated with student paintings.

A poster of different traditional Indonesian clothing hangs on one of the poles in the corridor, some classrooms are decorated with red Chinese paper lanterns, while hanging in the multifunction hall are student copies of old European paintings.

The school has students from 35 different nationalities and according to the school's marketing and parent relations director, Peter Konings, the school embraces the differences in its students by modifying the school's Singapore curriculum to fit into this rich diversity.

Peter said Singaporeans, Indonesians, Koreans, Japanese and Malaysians made up the bulk of students.

"We also have a lot of mixed blood children, Australians, Americans, Canadians, Romanians and Cubans," he told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview at his office on the Bona Vista campus in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta.

SIS, which also has campuses in Kelapa Gading and Pantai Indah Kapuk, both in East Jakarta, was originally established in 1997 in Pluit, also in East Jakarta.

The school was established to cater to the needs of Singaporean expatriates.

After the monetary crisis struck in 1997, the school was moved to Gandaria, South Jakarta, in 1998 and students from different nationalities began enrolling.

Konings said there had never been any racial tension at the school, thanks to its curriculum and policies, including the one that requires all students to communicate in English.

"This will avoid grouping and ensure that everyone mingles and gets to know each other. That is also why our social studies does not focus on one particular country. Students are taught about, for example, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines," he said.

The school takes a similar approach to religion, teaching students the history and practices of all religions.

"We're not focusing on one particular religion .... We believe that the role of religious education is in the parents' hands, not the school," Konings said.

Teachers at the school are also trained to be open-minded. The school's teachers, a mixture of Asians and Westerners, go through a three-month training course on Indonesian culture.

"That enables them to adapt and understand the children of long-term expatriates who have already adapted or need to adapt to Indonesian culture," he said. (005)