Teachers try to keep paint out of blackboard jungle

JAKARTA (JP): For the second time in less than a week, school uniforms covered with ink and paint were visible on the streets of Jakarta when junior high schools (SMP) throughout the city announced the results of final exams yesterday.

The announcement was greeted with euphoria by the young teenage graduates who proceeded to perform the customary scrawling on school uniforms.

The number of junior high school graduates in the city reached over 135,000, the bulk of whom will continue on to various high schools (SMA).

Though, in general, the graduation atmosphere went smoothly, an act of vandalism marred the day at one junior high school.

Students at state junior high school (SMPN) 19 in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, exhibited their joy in a more destructive manner by painting buses with graffiti.

This type of incident had actually been anticipated by the teachers at SMPN 19 who, prior to the announcement, gathered all the students inside the school and confiscated marking pens and spray paints.

Much to the chagrin of their teachers, the criminally industrious students had prepared a contingency plan to obtain paint and used it to randomly spray passing public transportation.

Fortunately there were no similar reports from other schools.

Other schools avoided the "graffiti incidents" by taking alternative measures to the graduation announcement.

As reported by Antara, SMPN 216 in Central Jakarta sent the graduation announcements by post to each student's home thus avoiding any outburst of joy that might lead to vandalism.

SMP "17 Augustus 1945," a private school in South Jakarta, deterred an unpleasant scene by instructing their students to wear traditional ethnic costumes on graduation day.

"The costumes not only dodges the usual scrawling of uniforms but more importantly it installs a sense of nationalism," headmaster Dyani Pitoyo said. (mds)