6,100 poor students need aid

BOGOR: More than 6,100 elementary school students from 30 subdistricts in Bogor regency need financial help because the poor economic condition of their families.

Nurhadiaty, head of the basic education office of the town, said that Bogor also was in need of more than 800 teachers.

She said that there were 1,670 teachers in 282 elementary schools with 2,478 classrooms and 94,500 students. This year it would only be able to recruit 300 teachers with its current budget, all of whom will be hired on a contract basis.

Nurhadiaty said the administration had provided aid for 4,625 poor students. Each of them receives Rp 70,000 cash as well as stationery worth Rp 50,000. The parents of another 1,499 students were given Rp 80,000 each.

The aid, according to Nurhadiaty, is far from adequate to meet all their needs. Her office calculated the total cost of the needs and decided that each of the poor students needed Rp 360,000 a year, but the administration had not allocated that much in the budget, apparently due to other financial priorities.--JP