In Jakarta, one such group of schools that strives to offer a holistic experience for their students’ futures, is Mentari Intercultural School (MIS).

Established by Yayasan Perkembangan Anak Indonesia, MIS is a group of three schools positioned across the Greater Jakarta area, these being MIS Jakarta, Bintaro, and Grand Surya.

The three institutions offer a mix of national and international curriculum with their own take on practical teaching, providing a balanced education, and The Jakarta Post had the opportunity to sit down with two students from the Jakarta & Bintaro campus to talk about their learning experience in relation to essential 21st century skills.

A 7th grader from MIS Bintaro, Mikael Maria Adrian, said that one of the most important things he learned was collaboration and communication.

“There’s always a group project in our classes, and this makes us comfortable with sharing ideas or understanding different perspectives. We’d also have to do public speaking assignments, and I think this really helped my communication skills.”

Ahmad Moqtav Hidayat, an 11th grader from MIS Jakarta, shares a similar sentiment, commenting that the soft skills he learns are just as important as the academic lessons he gets in MIS’ curriculum.

“I think students here really get the chance to develop holistically; our teachers don’t just focus on academics. We are encouraged to take initiative and be comfortable with leadership roles.”

Adrian, who plans to go into business, said the activities at school pushes him out of his comfort zone to collaborate and present his ideas,

“I think that builds character and prepares me to achieve my dream,” he said.

Moqtav, who wants to pursue a career in Law, said interpersonal communication is critical, and that soft skill is something he was able to learn daily at MIS. Moreover, he’s been reading up on the application processes for both international and local universities, thoroughly guided by the school’s career guidance team.

“They give me a comprehensive to-do list on what I need to achieve to get into the colleges that I’m interested in. What documents I need to prepare, the culture of the countries I might go to, scholarships, it’s all laid out to us holistically, and it makes us reflect on what further education we want to pursue.”

Both Adrian and Moqtav are glad that MIS prioritizes a student-centric approach to focus on creating intrinsic motivation, which enables students to understand the value of their lessons.

“In math class our teachers had us make a survey that we handed out to people. The data we collected was then discussed in class and we saw how our information can be interpreted visually. It was very engaging, and these projects made the lessons interesting.” Adrian stated.

“I feel that our teachers greatly emphasize the individual students, and they don’t rush the subjects. If you tell a fish to climb a tree and he can’t, it’s gonna believe it’s stupid, and the environment here avoids that.” Moqtav concluded.

In collaboration : Mentari Intercultural School