Classes disrupted due to damaged school buildings
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
How can students study and their teachers concentrate on their work under a classroom ceiling that is threatening to fall on them at anytime?
Yul Indira, the principal of state elementary school SD Pisangan Baru 13 in East Jakarta, may be able to answer the question.
Last week, an entire ceiling of one classroom collapsed while parts of the ceiling of two other rooms also disintegrated. No one was hurt as the three classrooms were abandoned just months ago.
Yul told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that she had lodged a complaint about the poor condition of her school buildings last year, but thus far the city administration had yet to provide funding for renovations, except for the three-monthly maintenance installment of Rp 900,000 (US$100).
She said that as the building's condition worsened, she decided to leave three of the eight classrooms vacant and move the students to the safety of other classrooms.
Strong odors from a chicken farm, which is only 20 meters away from the school, makes things worse. It even forced one teacher to wear a mask.
"The smell gets stronger at midday, especially in the dry season," said Slamet, the teacher.
It is not the only elementary school building which is in urgent need of repair. Many other schools are in a poor condition.
Take the nearby SD Pisangan Baru 11 and SD Pisangan Baru 05, for example. Some of the schools' rooftops are bending, obviously about to fall as the wooden columns continue to decay.
Only 25 meters in front of SD Pisangan Baru 05, there is a huge temporary dump site emanating strong odors.
According to data from the city education agency made available to The Jakarta Post, there are 387 state elementary school buildings in the capital which need repair.
There are a total of 2,334 state elementary schools and 750 private elementary schools with more than 810,000 students.
Meanwhile, Cecep Supendi, chief of the building section at the city education agency, admitted that many schools could not be immediately renovated due to limited funds from the city administration.
"The fund is very limited, it is not enough to cover all the damaged school buildings in the capital simultaneously," Cecep said.
Cecep also admitted to a lengthy bureaucratic process before any school could be renovated.
"We can only propose the plan, but the technical and final decision is in the hands of the respective mayoralty administrations," Cecep said.
According to Cecep's estimation, the damaged building of SD Pisangan Baru 13 would cost Rp 300 million to repair.
Meanwhile, in contrast to Cecep's claim of a lack of funds, a team of officials from the East Jakarta Mayoralty education office visited SD Pisangan Baru 05 on Wednesday to check on a package of chairs donated as part of the post-flood support program.
"We are here to check the desks and chairs which had been delivered as part of the post-flood support program and whether or not the numbers fit with the report," said an official. "But don't ask about the quality," he added, effectively admitting to their poor quality.
To his surprise, a teacher commented that the school was in dire need of cash to repair the buildings instead of chairs and desks.
The school building, the teacher claimed, was not affected by the flood which hit Jakarta in January and February this year.