Sutomo School is a group of private schools in

Medan Medan ( , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of North Sumatra. The nearby Strait of Malacca, Port of Belawan, and Kualanamu International Airport make Medan a regional hub and multi ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, managed by the Sutomo Education Foundation. This group currently consists of Sutomo 1 and Sutomo 2. Both schools feature education levels from kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school, with the exception of a ''playgroup'' (pre-school), which is only available in Sutomo 1. Between the two schools, Sutomo 1 is more dominant and widely known. Sutomo 1's ''playgroup'', kindergarten, and elementary school buildings are located at Jalan Jambi, while the junior and senior high school buildings are located in Jalan Letkol Martinus Lubis. Sutomo 2 is located entirely in Pulo Brayan, in the western side of Medan. More than 15 students have enrolled in Sutomo School. Majority of the students are of Chinese descent (about 80%),"Beginilah Mereka Merajut Jejaring"
/ref> while 40% of the teachers are of Chinese descent.

History

Sutomo School was formerly called Sutung School (蘇東; " East Sumatra") when it was established in 1926. On 25 February 1958, the name of the school was changed to Sutomo School in conjunction with the establishment of Sutomo Education Foundation by Soo Lean Toii, Oei Moh Toan, and Hadi Kusuma (Khoo Peng Huat). Initially, Sutomo School only provided education in elementary school through high school. Kindergarten and playgroup was introduced in 1964 and 1992, respectively. Initially, all education activities were run at Jalan Letkol Martinus Lubis. In 1978, kindergarten and elementary school activities were moved to a new building at Jalan Jambi. In 1982, Sutomo 2 was built on Jalan Yos Sudarso, and the old Sutomo School building was renamed to Sutomo 1. Plans to move the school to Jalan Pancing in Medan Tembung could not be realized due to

financial crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with Bank run#Systemic banki ...

that had struck Indonesia in the middle of the 1990s. In 2004, the foundation began constructing new Middle/High School buildings at Sutomo 1. In 2019, they finished the construction of 'Heritage' as a mini-museum.

Curriculum and education system

Ever since 1995/96, Sutomo implemented the "Plus Class" (superior class) system which aims to accommodate the most outstanding students, where the course materials progress more quickly and sometimes reaches more advanced levels than the regular classes (Sutomo still uses the national curriculum of Indonesia as a baseline, but they modified the depth and breadth of the subjects to be more advanced). In 2001, the school has been granted permission by the Director-General of Education to open an accelerated class where the high school education can be completed within a period of 2 years instead of the usual three. However, this accelerated course was removed in 2015.

References

{{coord missing, North Sumatra Buildings and structures in Medan Educational institutions established in 1926 Schools in Indonesia 1926 establishments in the Dutch East Indies