Bandung & Jakarta, Indonesia Immersion Programme

As we had mentioned in an earlier blog post, our school aspires to be a world-class high performance school, and organises numerous student immersion programmes to achieve that vision. From the 14^th to 17^th of October 2010, yet another student immersion programme in Bandung and Jakarta was held, which fourteen form three students took part in. The main purpose of the programme was to bridge the gap between the students from Malaysia and Indonesia as well as to learn about the language and cultural difference between the two countries. Out of the fourteen students who were involved in the programme, three students, Farhanah, Ili, and Soo Sun, were members of the Toyota Eco Rangers club, and like what Syafiqah did when she visited Singapore, they took advantage of the programme to learn more about the eco-projects carried out by the schools the visited.

They visited a few schools and universities in Indonesia. The first school they visited was Sekolah Kristen Yahya, which had a host of environmental projects. The school had a green house, in which fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, pomegranate and the nona fruit were planted. Our students also paid a visit to Sekolah Kristen Yahya's very own botanical garden which was established to facilitate the students' biological researches. The botanical garden was home to many plants. SMP Kristen Yahya also has a hydroponics plantation in their school compound. The students of the school strongly supported the idea of there being a hydroponics plantation and actively involved themselves in making the hydroponics plantation a massive success.

SMP Talenta is one of Indonesia's premier schools, and our students considered themselves lucky to be able to pay the school a visit. They were overwhelmed by the hospitality and friendliness of the students and teachers of Talenta. Our students were then taken for a tour around the school and learnt many things about the eco projects carried out in their school. Talenta had a green house which was similar to Kristen Yahya’s, except for the fact that Talenta's green house project was carried out on a comparatively bigger scale. There were many types of herbs and vegetables at the green house, which would be harvested and sold to the school society. According to the principal, the school has managed to earn a large sum of money through the sales of the herbs and vegetables. SMP Talenta also had a small farm where the students and teachers reared goats. The objective of establishing this farm was to make learning more interesting for the students. 

Another interesting place where we managed to learn about eco projects was the Institut Teknologi Bandung, also known as ITB, where they employed a uniqued method of separating and recycling their trash. Unfortunately, our students were running short on time and were unable to find out more about Institut Teknologi Bandung's recycling and segregation system.

The students who took part in the student immersion programme in Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia found the experience both wonderful and memorable. They would like to thank the school, the Ministry of Education and the schools in Indonesia for giving them the time of their lives, and hope that similar projects would be held in the future.