No lazing about for students on holiday

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/26/2009 1:17 PM  |  City

It was the first day of the school holidays; 11th-grader Alexander, 16, pulled his blanket over his head on that cool morning and continued sleeping.

Waking up at 9 a.m., he rushed to the playing room in front of his room, expecting to play a new PlayStation game he had just bought. But it was nowhere to be found.

"The game console was supposed to be right there, beside the TV, but it looked like my parents had hidden it away somewhere the night before," says Alex, a student at Bina Nusantara High School.

Instead of his initial plan of just having fun over the long-awaited holidays, Alex, who turns 17 in November, has spent much of his time in several out-of-school activities, including English courses and driving lessons.

He has also joined a working internship at an IT company.

"My mother wanted me to experience the working life during my holidays," he says.

"But since my school doesn't provide such programs, she asked my uncle to let me work at his office."

Currently studying the production and use of the barcode system, Alex says he is getting used to finding the excitement in learning how the system helps various industries manage large amounts of data.

"The barcode now means more than just black-and-white lines to me," he says.

Philip Auwines, 16, an intern at a five-star hotel, shares the same experience.

Having worked in the hotel's sales and marketing division for almost a week, the 11th-grader from the British International School says he has taken part in several sales visits and is very keen on learning how the division operates.

"I never knew the competition in sales and marketing was so tough," he says, adding he works each day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

When it comes to holidays, it is now common to see parents struggling to separate their children from the TV or their video and PC games.

Some parents with plenty of time and money often choose to immerse their children in outdoor activities, like recreation or sports; but other parents, seeking something more substantial, enroll their children in a variety of activities such as working internships, short courses or holiday camps.

With many parents hoping to see their children use some of their holiday time to join out-of-school activities, agencies that provide such programs have seen business still running strong during this supposedly off-peak period.

Yasmine, the owner of the private tutoring agency Chemie in Depok, said it was common for the agency to receive tutoring requests from parents during holiday time.

"Almost half our clients still ask us to provide tutors to help their children review the previous year's syllabus or study the upcoming one," she says.

Chemie, which focuses on providing tutors for expatriates' children, currently has more than 150 students from international schools, including the Jakarta International School (JIS), Sekolah Tiara Bangsa (STB) and the Singapore International School (SIS). (hwa)

-The Jakarta Post's intern, Winston Muljadi, contributed to this story

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