A total of 84 teams from high schools (SMA) from all over Indonesia will follow the National Geography Olympiad (OLEGNAS) 2012 organized by Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The olympiad taking place from 18 to 19 February 2012 will be opened directly by Dean of Faculty of Geography, Saturday (18/2), at the Faculty.
The committee chairman, Gerry Kristian, said that the Olympiad is intended to enhance students’ understanding and skills in geography and applied sciences. “The Olympiad is expected to improve the understanding and skills of high school students in understanding Geography," he said on Friday (17/2) in the Faculty.
Gerry explained that all Olympiad participants will go through two stages of selection, namely written examination and paper presentation. Teams that pass the written test will advance to the finals, competing to present papers that have been sent previously. "In the finals, 10 teams with the highest scores will present their paper and answer the case study from other participants," he explained.
Besides the Olympiad, there is Geography agility competition for Junior High School students all over Java, Friday (17/2). This activity was followed by 47 teams from 31 schools.
Meanwhile, Dean of Faculty of Geography, Prof. Dr. Suratman, M.Sc., said the Olympiad is expected to produce more experts in geography. He said that Indonesia is still desperately short of experts in the field of Geography. "Indonesia is still lacking of geography experts, no more than 50 people are professors while only 250 are doctors. This is very sad, the proficiency level is still low to meet the need of competent geography experts," he said after opening the Geography agility competition.