The right school

I recently received the Jakarta Post Lifestyle 1997 and want to thank you for its release. The responsible team has certainly scored a hit just as The Jakarta Post has generally done for the last 14 years. Congratulations!

It is also a point in your favor, that you mention that "it would be wise to check and confirm whether it suits your requirements for example in the section "Finding the right school".

But some advertisements are enough to cause a headache. For example, one school boasts being able to do the virtual impossible. I was flabbergasted to read that it claims to be a "multinational school" of "international standards" providing an "international education", delivering a "native speaker education program", "implementing a specific international curriculum by expat teachers", who are using their "expertise in design", using "the same curriculum materials... as international schools" and thereby -- believe it or not -- "applying the Indonesian curriculum".

The billboard at the entrance of the school clearly states that it is a National Indonesian School (Sekolah Nasional). The somewhat different school fees are only justified by the fact the school is a sample of new school "experiments" which are also open to foreign students and employ several foreigners as "native English speaker teachers". Even the use of the attribute "bilingual" in homework material at this new private national school is a delicate subject, because there aren't any related government regulations yet.

So, why beat about the bush? If it is a real International School, say it and if it is an Indonesian National School, so be it and make it the best in any case. If not, people who are concerned about education in this city and/or have children to enroll could hit on the idea of digging deeper and ask for a copy of this "specific international Indonesian curriculum" for verification and -- who knows -- a recommendation as an example.

Name and address

known to the editor