Faculty of Geography UGM holds National Geographic Olympiad for Junior High School students from January 15 until 16, 2018. This competition was attended by as many as 65 teams from Jakarta, Surakarta, Rembang, Bojonegoro (Central Java), Bantul (Special Region of Yogyakarta), Central Sulawesi, Bogor (West Java), Palangkaraya (Central Kalimantan) to Jayapura (Papua). The Chief of the Committee, Ilham Jamaluddin, said this Olympiad is entitled Enhancing the Community’s Capacity through Disaster Management towards Resilient Indonesia. Ilham said the competition aims to invite Indonesian students to learn more about geographic science in the development of disaster management system in Indonesia. “We would like to invite the young generation to learn more about disaster management because our country is prone to disaster, thus comprehension on disaster management is necessary,” said Ilham during the opening of National Geographic Olympiad at Merapi Auditorium, Faculty of Geography UGM on Monday (15/11).
Ilham further said the National Geographic Olympiad 2018 for Senior High School Students will be held from January 17 until 20, 1018. It will be attended by as many as 130 teams. “For Junior High School level, participants come from as far as Jayapura while for the Senior High School, they come from as far as Aceh,” he added.
Dean of Faculty of Geography, Prof. Dr. Muh. Aris Marfa’i, M.Sc. said the competition aims to introduce geography towards Junior and Senior High School students. The first winner of Senior High School level, according to Aris, will obtain an opportunity to be admitted as student at Faculty of Geography UGM without writing test,” said Aris.
According to Aris, the graduates from Faculty of Geography will have many job opportunities in the future in the midst of technology disruption which causes people to use applications, including taxi and hotel online mapping-based-application. “The domain of mapping application comes from geography,” he added.
In addition, Aris said every region has to have Regional Disaster Management Agency. If each Regional Disaster Management Agency recruits two disaster experts, thus it will require more than 1,000 people. Moreover, job opportunities in Ministries and regions also require graduates from Faculty of Geography.
On the other hand, Secretary of Directorate of Student Affairs UGM, Agus Hartono, said the students’ participation in the Olympiad is expected to enhance their comprehension regarding geography. Moreover, Agus asked the participants to spread their knowledge to the community. “The knowledge can be shared towards their parents and the community around them,” said Agus.