76% of Bogor schools in decrepit state

More than 1,200 school buildings in Bogor regency, or 76 percent of the total 1,650 school buildings in the area, are in a damaged state.

Head of the regency's education and teaching agency Didih Suwardi said that annually, the office could only repair about 60 school buildings, Antara reported. As a result, the condition of the other buildings had deteriorated.

The most badly damaged buildings were the SD Inpres, or elementary school buildings built under a presidential instruction. They were constructed using poor quality materials in the 1970s.

Didih admitted on Tuesday that the number of schools was too high compared with the number of students. Therefore, several schools were then merged.

Didih said that from 1998 to 2002, the education commission of the regency had received a total of Rp 23.7 billion from the World Bank.

The funds were allocated for, among others things, scholarships for the students, for subsidizing the salaries of temporary teachers and for other overtime payments.

In the 2000/2001 academic year, about 27,000 elementary and high school students received a scholarship.

The scholarship for an elementary school student was Rp 10,000 per month, a junior high school student Rp 20,000 and a high school student Rp 25,000 per month.--JP