Rp 412m allotted for one classroom<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Although the general public may be well aware of the poor
\ncondition of Jakarta's schools, they may not know a lot of money
\nis being poured into renovating them.<\/p>\n
In this year alone, the city has allocated Rp 21 billion to
\nbuild 51 classrooms for junior high schools and vocational high
\nschools in 15 locations throughout the city. That means each
\nclassroom, measuring 8 meters by 9 meters, will cost some Rp 412
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
"That total does not include the cost of furnishing the
\nclassroom," said the head of education facilities and
\ninfrastructure division at the City Education Department, Nawawi,
\nat a news conference held here on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The head of the City Education Department, Gito Purnomo,
\nbacked Nawawi's statement, saying that the figure was based on
\ncalculations submitted by a consultant from the City Building
\nControl Department.<\/p>\n
"We know nothing about the projects' estimate as it was made
\nby a consultant from the city department for building
\nsupervision," said Gito at the news conference.<\/p>\n
The conference was organized to explain the city
\nadministration's plan to renovate old schools and to build new
\nfacilities in response to public criticism over the schools' poor
\ncondition.<\/p>\n
The city administration allocated Rp 94 billion this year to
\nbuild new classrooms and to renovate a number of classrooms at
\nsenior high schools, which have been seriously neglected.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, the City Council's Commission E for
\nsocial welfare said that they had discovered several instances of
\nmarkups in renovation projects for many schools across the city.<\/p>\n
According to the head of Commission E, Nazamuddin, signs of
\nmarkups were found by a number of city councillors who were
\ndeployed at over 100 elementary and junior high schools to check
\nthe condition of those schools recently.<\/p>\n
These signs included the use of building materials of which
\nthe quality was below what was specified, while in other schools
\nthe contractors only renovated a part of the building.<\/p>\n
"We often noticed that only the front of the schools looked
\ngood, but the rear of the buildings were not renovated," he said,
\nadding that funding included the renovation of both the back and
\nthe front of the building.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Gito said that 68 elementary schools out of the
\n1,699 in the city would have a complete overhaul as the buildings
\nwere in very poor shape.<\/p>\n
About 30 of the 285 junior high schools in the city would also
\nrequire a complete renovation, he added.<\/p>\n
However, he said that the city administration only planned to
\nrenovate 10 elementary schools and six junior high schools this
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Therefore, Gito has requested additional funding from the 2003
\ncity budget so that his department can renovate more schools.<\/p>\n
Commission E has agreed to the demand for additional funding,
\nwhile underlining that the project's implementation should be
\ntightly controlled to avoid corruption.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Heriyawan, a councillor from the Justice Party, said
\nthat the city administration should find a way to renovate the
\nschools as they could collapse at any time, putting the lives of
\nstudents and teachers at risk.<\/p>",
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