Young Indonesian scientists received a hero's welcome as they returned home from Poland as champions of the 2009 International Conference of Young Scientists (ICYS) with 10 medals, more than any other country.

The victory is a sweet (and rare) treat for the country's poor education system, which will mark National Education Day on Saturday.

The ICYS is an annual physics, mathematics, computer science and ecology competition for high school students under 18 years of age.

The 12 students - Christopher Alexander, Allen Michelle Wihono, Lidya Felita Limbri, Jessica Karli, Melissa Nadia Natasha, I Made Rayo Putra, Fernanda Novelia, Vincentius Gunawan, Idelia Chandra, Gabriella Alicia Kosasih, Teresa Maria Karina, Guinandra Lutfan Jatikusumo and Nugra Akbari - earned six gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

Your comment:

Congratulations to Vincentius and Fernanda for choosing egg parasites for their project. All children should learn to rear beneficial insects. Predators and pollinators are just as important as trichogramma. I am sure that pest management in Indonesia will receive a boost through such an approach.

Satyabroto

How *international' do you want to be? -- May 3, p. 6

A friend visiting Jakarta recently commented that she had never seen a city with quite so many international schools.

This friend is not a naive traveler, nor indeed a first-time visitor to this city. She has traveled extensively and lived on three continents. This was her first visit to Jakarta in almost 10 years. She then said something that was quite interesting, for she asked "Are there really that many expatriate families living in Jakarta?"

International schools in Jakarta are a somewhat different type of institution of education than that which my friend had in mind. It might, however, be worth stopping to consider what type of institution they really are, but this can be quite difficult to pin down.

Your comments:

This article is true to a point but it would be more realistic to say that there are schools that are pretending to be international but they really are not international. There are many schools that are doing the Cambridge exams and just using teachers that can speak English but are not really any good as teachers. This means that the poor students are facing these exams and ending up with D and E grades or, if they are lucky, C grades. These schools are not really international but are just conning parents who believe that they are getting something better, when in reality their children would be better off in a national school and doing their own national curriculum and not trying to study in English which they clearly cannot do.

Steve Shelby

Kalla could present SBY with tough -- May 4, p. 4

The entry of Vice President and Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla in the presidential election is expected to turn it into a three-horse race, and could force President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to a runoff.

Your comments:

Jusuf Kalla (JK) is part of the current government and assists the President in achieving the goals set by a Cabinet led by the President.

While some achievements may be attributable to JK's efforts, they should be considered as achievements of the government as a whole.

Darwin Marpaung

What rubbish. The whole of Indonesia knows what Kalla is all about. He is very unpopular and will fail. His arrogance will betray him.

John Ralph

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