Denpasar – The students of SD Muhammadiyah 2 Denpasar snatched the gold medal in the International Robotic Olympiad of 2014 held in Johor Baru, Malaysia. The students who lived in Jalan Pulau Halmahera, Sanglah, Denpasar, pocketed four medals of gold, silver, and bronze.

This achievement was respectively for the category of Soccer Robot with gold medal by Wildan and Naufal Mochtar, Aerial Robot with silver medal by Aqsa and Rizky. On the other hand, the bronze medal with category Line Tracer by Qowi Maula, and Theater Robot by Hisyam Hakim, Aliyah Dafitri, Qowi Maula, Naufal Mochtar, Wildan, Renaldi, Aqsa, and Rizky Firdaus.

The Principal of SD Muhammadiyah 2 Denpasar, Siti Nurhamidah, expressed her gratitude that her students could participate and became the winners in international competition. Furthermore, this event was attended by almost all countries in ASEAN such as Malaysia, Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. Their participation was funded by the school and the students’ parents.

“We participate in the Olympiad not through the National Education Organization (Diknas),” said Nurhamidah when she was asked for inquiry by the editorial board of muhammadiyah.or.id on Wednesday (1/14).

The robotic extracurricular activity in SD 2 Muhammadiyah Denpasar was the only one with this activity in Bali Island. The activity was named Ngurah Rai Junior Robot was established in 2011.

The supervisor of robotic club of SD Muhammadiyah 2 Denpasar, Ardita Kusuma, explained that all spare parts for robot was financially funded and supported by the students’ parents.

“The school was only the training facilitator. The tools are extremely expensive, some of them are almost 8 million rupiahs,” she said.

Even though they had quite few numbers of achievements in national and international area, and they brought good name of Thousand Temples Island (Pulau Seribu Pura), unfortunately, until today, there were still lack of publications from the government of Bali Province.

“We have ever made a proposal for funding to Education Authorities (Dinas Pendidikan). However, since we are private school, it was promptly rejected. Until today, there is no attention at all from the government of Bali.” (dzar)