Confusion grips teachers, parents at Koja schools

JAKARTA (JP): Teachers and parents of more than 1,000 students are gripped by confusion while they wait for the official word on the fate of state elementary schools in the Koja area.

Victorine, head mistress of State Elementary School Koja Utara 07, said the school she heads would be relocated due to the construction of a port container terminal.

"We have no idea when or where exactly we are going to move," she said.

According to the city master plan, Victorine said, eight schools -- Koja Utara 01 to 08 -- would be moved to Koja Selatan, Rawa Badak and Lagowa districts.

"I heard on television yesterday that North Jakarta Mayor Suprawito said our school would be moved by the end of this year," said Victorine.

Hasanah, mother of a fourth-grade pupil, said she did not know where to move her family to since the amount of compensation offered by the company and the local subdistrict administration for her dwelling was too meager to relocate.

"They offered to pay us only Rp 100,000 per square meter, which means that we would get only Rp 60 million. Where can I get a house the same size as this in Jakarta at that price?" she said.

A teacher of the Yaspi private elementary school refused to comment on the plan to move the school.

"We have been told by the local military authorities not to speak to journalists," he said.

Meanwhile, a source from the private elementary school Dewi Sartika said that they would move to Rorotan, North Jakarta.

"The building is now being constructed," she said.

The Dewi Sartika foundation operates an elementary and junior high school in the area. Both schools are accepting no year one students pending the completion of the new building.

"We will open year one for both the elementary and junior high schools when the new school building has been built," she said.

The confusion arose after the state-owned company PT Pelindo II announced last year it would appropriate 90 hectares of land in Koja Utara district, which was initially inhabited by more than 9,000 families, of which at present fewer than 2,000 remain.

The company plans to expand the existing cargo terminal, in a joint-venture with PT Humpuss, the widely diversified business group owned by Hutomo Mandala Putra.

The project will force the moving of at least 14 elementary schools -- Koja Utara 01 to 08, Yaspi, Kemala Bhayangkara, Bahrul Ulum, Dewi Sartika, and the Arruhaniah and UKS schools.

The last two schools are no longer operating since the site of the schools and neighboring houses, located in the Gudang Baru sub-district, have already been appropriated by PT Pelindo II. (01)