Visa problems erase math Olympiad trip

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/13/2006 5:16 PM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Six students chosen to represent Indonesia in the 47th International Mathematical Olympiad in Slovenia will miss the tournament because the Education Ministry failed to provide them with visas. The students were scheduled to depart Sunday. The Olympiad started Wednesday.

Lawmakers urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo to take action against the officials who were in charge of applying for the visas.

""We deeply regret this. The ministry should have been able to get the visas,"" House speaker Agung Laksono was quoted as saying by the detikcom news web site on Wednesday.

The six students are Win Mulyadi from SMA 1 high school in Bali, Askar Aulia from SMA 1 high school in Yogyakarta; Albert Gunawan from SMA 1 high school in Temanggung, Central Java; Evan from Trimulya Christian High School in Bandung; Raymon Kristopher Sitorus from BPK Penabur Christian High School in Jakarta; and Andre Jonathan from Vonsvitae High School, also in Jakarta.

The ministry's high school development director, Sungkowo Mujiamanu, explained that the ministry failed to get the visas because Slovenia did not have a diplomatic representative here, nor did it issue visas on arrival.

""We tried to get it from Austria, the closest country to Slovenia, but to no avail, since there is no agreement between the two countries regarding the issuance of visas,"" he said. -- JP

Comments (0) | Post comment

A | A | A |