Almost 200 schools without desks, chairs

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

With the sixth graders facing final exams and the new academic year about to start in July, officials at a state elementary school in Sepatan district, Tangerang regency, were wondering what to do about the classrooms.

"We do not have enough desks and chairs ... the teachers and the students have to sit on the floor in the classrooms," principal Rostiwie told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Only three of the six classrooms at the school were furnished with chairs and desks, the Post observed.

Rostiwie said she had most of the desks and chairs removed because they were so old and rickety, they posed a danger to the children.

"We have asked the education agency to send us new furniture. The administration promised to deliver new desks last year, but we have yet to see them," she said.

Each classroom in the school should have 20 desks and 40 chairs for 40 students, plus one desk and one chair for the teacher.

Rostiwie's school is not the only one where students are forced to sit on the floor.

As many as 195 state elementary schools, or 20 percent of the 975 elementary schools in the 26 districts in the regency, have for years been requesting new furniture.

Yuyus Rusniardi, who is in charge of logistics at the local administration, acknowledged that the administration did not have the money to purchase all of the furniture needed by a total of 300 classrooms, each of which accommodates at least 40 students.

"The administration was only able to allocate Rp 1.7 billion from this year's budget to refurbish 176 classrooms. The remaining 124 classrooms have to wait until next year," she said.

Most of the furniture in the regency's schools is old as the buildings themselves, which were built between 1979 and 1984. Many of the buildings are also in dire need of renovation.

Regent Ismet Iskandar said the administration needed help to renovate school buildings and buy new chairs and desks.

"Tangerang is home to more than 2,000 industrial firms, but it seems they do not care about the poor educational facilities all around their firms," he said.

Ismet encouraged businesspeople to get involved in empowering residents living near their factories.

"We call on all businesspeople in Tangerang to pay attention to education by donating a little of their profit to renovate schools," he said.