SMA 2 Sekayu is representative of the Musi Banyuasin authorities' great passion and drive for educational advancement. With 12 classes and 346 students, SMA Sekayu is among the six top South Sumatra schools that are part of the central government's pilot project for schools of international standing (RSBI), which is entering the second of its designed five-year term.

The school was completing renovations when the Post called in mid-January. Once the renovations are complete, this 2-hectare senior high school will surely emerge as an imposing architecture of modern design. The school also plans to incorporate the administration of SMP 6 Sekayu, an adjacent state junior high school that boasts the same excellence. SMA 2 Sekayu principal Wien Sukarsi said the selection of the school among those under the RSBI was inseparable from the achievements it has made since 2002, when the regency administration launched its free education program.

Last year, for instance, 85 percent of SMA 2 graduates went on to elite tertiary institutes like Sriwijaya University in Palembang, the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture and the Bandung Institute of Technology -- all for whom the entrance exams were waived. Such performance also can be attributed to the school's staff, facilities and infrastructure, ranging from quality teaching personnel to six laboratories with first-rate equipment for language, physics, computer science, chemistry, biology and social science studies. Extracurricular facilities include 10 sports fields and courts as well as a complete set of musical instruments. The school also has an Internet cafe, a community radio station and an eco-sanitation system.