Bekasi in effort to up education

BEKASI: Regent Saleh Manaf revealed that 514 elementary school buildings, or 60 percent of a total of 700 schools in the district, were in disrepair.

"We are considering alloting more of the 2005 budget to renovating the schools in 23 subdistricts and 187 villages, which were mostly built in 1980s," he said on Wednesday.

Education rates in the regency are low. While 94.22 percent of children went to the elementary schools in 2003 and 84.22 percent went to junior high schools, only 19.7 percent of students attended high schools, the regent said.

"We will involve businesspeople to provide scholarships for children aged between six and 18," Saleh Manaf said. -- JP