Bogor short of teachers

BOGOR: Bogor is short of 5,000 elementary school teachers, but the municipality administration is unable to recruit them due to a lack of funds.

Municipality education agency chief Didih Suwardi said on Wednesday that currently the municipality had 1,620 elementary schools with 443,000 students, but only 9,700 teachers.

"The 9,700 teachers are not enough. We need about 5,000 more, he said, adding that to solve the shortage problem his agency had to recruit temporary teachers, at salaries ranging from Rp 50,000 to Rp 75,000 per month.

He said that he had proposed the municipality administration raise the temporary teachers' salaries and that had been approved.

Didih also said that to improve efficiency, 78 elementary schools had been merged to become 39 in 2000, and in 2001 some 84 merged elementary schools became 42.

All the vacated school buildings were then used in connection with junior or senior high schools. -- JP