Students express mixed feelings on Games holiday

JAKARTA (JP): Students from several junior and senior high schools in the city have given mixed reactions to the government sponsored six-day holiday during the 19th SEA Games beginning next week.

While some students filled their heads with plans for the holiday, others worried about their upcoming exams.

The Oct. 13 to Oct. 18 holiday is a week ahead of the normal school calendar schedule. The Games itself will run from Oct. 11 to Oct. 19.

The idea for students to have a holiday during the SEA Games comes from the city's Ministry of Education and Culture office.

The office spokesman, Hadis Hadianegara, said the students, accompanied by teachers, were expected to attend events in proximity of their school. Students have been urged to watch the Games and support the Indonesian contingent.

Hadis said the students would be required to give brief accounts of the sports they saw, while the school headmasters had been asked to make full reports on the students' mobilization program.

Hadis said the holiday would not burden or interrupt classes.

Several students from the state-owned 120 junior high school on Jl. Kapuk Muara in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, said the holiday would make it difficult to prepare for exams which were just around the corner.

Students were originally due to have exams next week and take their holiday the week after. But due to the SEA Games, the exams will be held in the last week of this month.

"I don't see this six-day holiday as the proper time to watch the Games. It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the Games or have poor nationalism, but I think, as a student, at this moment I have to put the exams as my first priority," a third year student of SMP 120 junior high school, Mariam, told The Jakarta Post.

"I'd really love to see the Games, well who doesn't? But then, I'll be exhausted and will rather jump into bed and go to sleep than read those textbooks," said Mariam who plans to watch her favorite event, gymnastics, on television.

Realistic

Guntur Firmansyah, a second year student at SMA 63 senior high school in Petukangan Selatan, South Jakarta, said he would neither watch the Games nor study during the holidays.

"I'm just being realistic here. A long holiday like that will only lead me to the cinema or friends' houses, not to my desk or to the stadium," Guntur said.

"It'll not work for me and many other boys out there. I mean, a holiday is a holiday. However, I do hope that I still can save the last hours to prepare for my examinations. I don't want to fail," he said.

Both Mariam and Guntur said their teachers had not insisted they watch the sports event. Mariam said her teachers only suggested students watch the Games if they wanted to.

Meanwhile, students of SMP 35 on Jl. Tarakan, Central Jakarta, have been assigned by their teachers to see the Games and compile newspaper clippings of the event.

"My teacher said anything related to the Games will be included in the upcoming examination," said second-grade student Ahmad.

He said that students at his school had been encouraged to rent buses with their teachers to attend the events.

"My friends and I plan to see our favorite events like football, indoor volleyball and above all else, beach volleyball. Wow, I can't wait to see that one," he said with a smile on his face. (jun/cst)