As many as 160 students from Vocational Schools were competing in the National Applied Science Olympiad and Arts Competition and Festival 2012. Opening ceremony was done in Grha Sabha Pramana on Monday evening (29/10), marked by dance performance by students from SMK 1 Kasihan Bantul. “This is the fifth time running for the Olympiad to be held, previously it was held in ITB Bandung, ITS Surabaya, Undip Semarang, UGM in 2011 and this year, too.” Teguh Widodo, Chairman of the event said.
He said that the competition was being held to increase competence of vocational school students in applying their skills as well as increasing motivation.
"Another goal is to promote the performance quality of the students and to enhance the schools’s image, driving process quality and learning results based on demand, also to increase cooperation between vocational schools and industry,” he said.
The 160 best students from 32 Indonesian provinces joined the competition and festival. For applied science, students will showcase their skills in four areas, maths, physics, chemistry and biology while the arts festival will showcase traditional dance, traditional songs and music, and non-classical music performances as well as play.
In non-classical music competition, 17 provinces with 7 people each were competing. Traditional dance competition was joined by 29 provinces while the traditional song competition 3 provinces. As many as 14 provinces participated in the play competition. “The total number of participants plus accompanying teachers was 1012 people,” he added.
Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. dr. Iwan Dwiprahasto, M.Med.Sc., Ph.D, said mastering science and technology without faith and culture will create damage. The Olympiad and Festival are a very good integration to reinstate the cultured Indonesia.
“Therefore, I hope that this competition would reinstate the nation’s spirit of unity. Compete in sportivity, winning or losing is not the target but the value of unity and friendship which is the most essential component of both activities,” he said.
Opening the Applied Science Olympiad and Arts Festival, Head of Education, Culture and Sports of Yogyakarta Special Region, Drs. R. Kadarmanto Baskara Aji, said that all participants have made achievements and they have become winners in their provinces respectively," he said.
For Baskara Aji, the hosting of the events close to the Youth’s Oath Day showed that the 1928 generation and current generation have the same spirit and building skills. He hoped that the Youth’s Oath aspiration would inspire the Olympiad and Festival in 2012. “If the spirit of togetherness and to make achievements can be built based on culture, then this activity would satisfy everyone,” he concluded.