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Program links RI, British students through sports
The world is shrinking
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The world is shrinking. Young people interact with their virtual pals as much as with their classmates. Teachers are just keeping up with their pupils and becoming learners as well. Schools are no longer the only institution providing knowledge, experience and life skills.
This image is no fantasy, especially for the British Council which has launched the Pompey Double Club Indonesia program to help bridge the gap between students in Indonesia and the UK.
Combining the excitement of learning English, the love of sports and intercultural experiences, the program is held in partnership with Pompey Double Club Portsmouth,the Asian Soccer Academy and Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second biggest Muslim organization.
"What we do is build cultural relations between countries," said British Council director of learning and creativity, Christopher Palmer, on the sidelines of a Pompey Double Club tournament held here recently.
Officially kicking off on Nov. 12, 2007, the program is part of the council's worldwide project held in over 100 countries. It aims to create 1,000 links between students in Indonesia and the UK.
School links here, according to Palmer, are created to bring the world into the classroom, providing opportunities for school members to instill global dimensions to education and professional development.
"With its mutual collaborative approach, school links enable teachers and students to work together and exchange their best practices," Palmer said.
More important is the fact the program also brings in values aside from just being good at sport and being good at English, said Palmer.
"It also teaches students about leadership, fair play, teamwork, strategy and all the other things we sometimes don't focus on much in schools," said Palmer, adding the program was aimed at helping bring out those life skills.
Palmer said teamwork was something children would have to do in their adulthood. They will have to show leadership and demonstrate strategy, he said.
"They can get all these things through something like sport, like futsal and volleyball," he added.
The program in Indonesia involves nine Muhammadiyah junior high schools -- three of which are in Jakarta, three in Yogyakarta and three in Central Java. Each school involves 30 participants comprising 15 boys and 15 girls.
The program includes 10 weeks of training. The training is held once a week for two to three hours, in and outside the classroom.
English lessons are taught with themes such as sport, in this case futsal (indoor soccer) and volleyball. Field training includes futsal for boys and volleyball for girls.
After a two-week break, a series of futsal and volleyball tournaments were held in each of the participating cities in March.
The final matches for this season were held in Yogyakarta, watched by Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin.
This season, SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta won first place in the futsal tournament with SMP Muhammadiyah 22 Setiabudi Pamulang and SMP Muhammadiyah 1 Muntilan as runner-ups.
In the volleyball tournament, SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Yogyakarta were the champions while SMP Muhammadiyah 31 Surakarta and SMP Muhammadiyah 31 Rawamangun won second and third places respectively.
"After the tournament, the British Council selects an all-star team of 10 boys and 10 girls, who have the opportunity to take an intensive English course in Jakarta," British Council media relations officer Gusni Puspitasari said, adding the English course would start on April 14, 2008.
Din Syamsuddin said the Asian Soccer Association would select a number students from the participating schools to be sent to Portsmouth at the end of the program.
"They will learn more about both sport and language in a school for one or two weeks," Din said.
Din also said the program for Muhammadiyah was part of the organization's intercultural dialogue it had developed with, among others, the British Council.
"We hope we will be able to continue conducting this kind of program in the future," Din added.
Bertres Risdiansyah of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta agreed, saying the program had made him more confident in speaking English, even in front of an audience, and provided him with good futsal skills.
"This is a very good program. It should involve more students, not just Muhammadiyah school students," Bertres said.
