WEST BANGKA -- The Muntok Indonesian Tin Museum (MTI) has become one of the educational tourism destinations for schools on the island of Bangka. The museum, which is managed by PT TIMAH Tbk, holds a lot of history about tin mining and Muntok City.
No wonder MTI Muntok is often visited by students. A total of 350 students from Bangka Regency, Pangkalpinang City, and West Bangka Regency visited MTI Muntok, Wednesday (2/11/2022).
The students who visited MTI Muntok were 125 people from SMK 1 Muntok, 40 people from SMPN 1 Puding Besar, and 140 people from SDN 10 Pangkalpinang. These students take turns around MTI Muntok.
Sendy, the assistant teacher of SMK 1 Muntok, said that he and his students came to learn about the history of tin and the city of Muntok.
"This activity is one of the P5 activities, now in the independent learning curriculum, there is a loading project for Pancasila learning, one of which is learning local culture, and local wisdom in West Bangka. At the Museum students learn the history of Muntok city and the history of tin mining," he said.
According to him, the students were interested in going around MTI Muntok because some of them had never been to MTI. With this visit, students can also see firsthand what is being learned at school.
"Hopefully the museum will get better which the school can use to learn for students," said Sendy.
One of the students, Lita Sutiana, a 10th-grade student of Computer Network Engineering at SMK Negeri Muntok (15) admitted that she got a lot of knowledge at the Museum.
"Here we learn a lot about the history of the city of Muntok, the history of tin, the history of Indonesian independence, and the second world war," she said.
Likewise, Saidati Is Maha Rifda (14), Lita's colleague added that apart from studying history, a visit to MTI Muntok made her feel touched and happy.
"There is a feeling of sadness when remembering heroes who have died and also feeling happy to see the relics of the past that until now can be seen again," said Saidati.
The assistant teacher of SMPN 1 Puding Besar Ro'aini said that the Museum in Muntok City was chosen as a place for student learning because of historical requirements.
"Our activity and that of our students is an exercise for student diversity, which is an OSIS and extracurricular activity. We visit MTI because it is a historical place and tin is the main asset in Bangka Belitung, so we learn about the history of tin," he said.
"It is hoped that students can get to know the history of their area. The museum and the city of Muntok were chosen as lessons because of conditions with history," explained Ro'aini
Meanwhile, Muhamad Al Fajri, the head of the student council at SMPN 1 Puding Besar, said he was happy to learn about local history at the museum.
"I am quite happy because this is the first time we have been to the Museum in Muntok, we learn a lot about local history, both the history of the city of Muntok, World War 2, and about the history of tin mining," he said.
