The grounds of the SMPN 103 state junior high school in Cijantung, East Jakarta, looked squeaky clean without any litter in sight, when The Jakarta Post visited the school recently.
It was nevertheless busy during the exam break, the school yard packed with students holding snacks and plastic cups of chocolate milk from the canteen.
This school of 1,254 students is not only known for its cleanliness, but also its greenery, with thousands of trees planted in its premises.
The blend of clean and green environment impressed the jurors of the Jakarta Green School program contest - held by the City Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) - so much, they awarded SMPN 103 the first prize for the junior high school category.
The competition involved both private and state schools.
Eva Anggraeni, school project facilitator, said her students had been recycling garbage into paper art and newspaper baskets.
"Every day, we remind our friends they should separate their dry and wet litter when disposing of it," Ririn, an eighth grader and member of the school environment care group, said.
Linda, another eighth grader, said reminding friends to dispose of litter in the right bins was the hardest job.
"Although the group's - about 50 of us - main duty is to ensure all students separate their litter, we also encourage all students outside the group to remind each other to join in the cause too," she said. "We also received a lot of help from the school gardeners."
The gardeners bring plastic bottles and other litter to trash-pickers, while students recycle all kinds of papers into other things. The paper recycling activity has been running for the past two months.
Aside from recycling, students have recently organized their own global warming awareness campaign for the school's neighborhood residents.
Lilis Yuliani, a geography teacher, said as part of a freedom of speech class, students were given a chance to speak their minds through the campaign.
"They were armed with plant pots, brochures as well as loudspeakers and marched around kampungs in groups of 40, to campaign about the environment. They said to housewives: *please turn your TV off, do not watch soap operas too much,' while giving out leaflets about recycling, tree planting and the importance of saving water and electricity," Lilis said.
The school's garden is not only filled with 3,000 trees, but also with vegetables and 208 kinds of medicinal herbs.
SMPN 103 also won the Healthy School first prize in a national contest in 2003. The school has a canteen that bans the use of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and labels the nutritional value of every dish it sells.
BPLHD head Peni Susanti lauded the Jakarta Green School program, citing it as a real collaborative effort between the administration, NGOs, the media and private sector, to nurture environmental awareness around city schools.
The other winners for the junior high school category were SMPN 30 of North Jakarta and SMPN 111 of West Jakarta. Meanwhile, the winners for the elementary school category were the state Islamic elementary school MIN 09 in South Jakarta, the state elementary school SDN 01 in East Jakarta, and SDN 12 Pagi in Central Jakarta. (iwp)
