Students express mixed feelings on Games holiday

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)