"With this achievement, Indonesia has exceeded the target of reaching three gold medals," Director General of Primary and Secondary Education at Ministry of Education and Culture Hamid Muhammad said here Tuesday.
At the 12th IJSO in South Korea last year the Indonesian team won gold medals.
The five gold medals put Indonesia in the second position after Taiwan, Hamid noted.
The IJSO which initiated Indonesia in 2004 is an annual competition event of natural science for junior high students, Hamid noted.
This year IJSO was held under a theme of Science for Creative Innovation.
IJSO is a form of world cooperation on the development and improvement of science education.
"We want to encourage our children to love science because inevitably the progress of a nation is determined in part by the development and application of science," Hamid said.
Meanwhile, Director of Secondary School, Supriano, hoped the Indonesian student team will be able to maintain the success achieved at the 13th IJSO at the IJSO 2017 in the Netherlands.
"We highly appreciate our IJSO team. Hopefully in the Netherlands we will be successful," Supriano said.
The five gold medals were won by Nixon Wijaya, Epafroditus Kristiadi Susetyo, Aditya David Wirawan, Winston Cahya, and Albert Sutiono.
In addition, seven silver medals were also won by Joan Nadia, Haniif Ahmad Jauhari, Raymond Valentino, Arkananta Rasendriya, Gede Aryana Saputra, Timotius Jason and Tanya Nuhaisy Wulandari.(WDY)
