Education in Maluku reduce to a pile of rubble

The devastating drawn-out conflict in Ambon has left Tjisan Sangaji a lone fighter.

As a school principal, her mission is nearly impossible: keeping state elementary school SD 30 Ambon, located in the Muslim Silale slum area, running when almost all her teachers fled to the safety of Christian areas in the city.

She said that over 80 percent of the teachers at the school prior to the outbreak of violence in 1999 were Christian, and when they left, the school -- which now has 250 pupils -- was left with only four Islamic religious teachers. Up to 75 percent of the school's pupils come from displaced families.

Finding replacements has proved to be difficult, so the religious teachers have to teach general subjects as well.

And Sangaji has become a jill-of-all-trades, from teaching in the classroom and doing the paperwork, to dealing with the government bureaucracy. Telephone line, running water and electricity have been cut because the school is unable to pay the bills.

"The conflict is no good for education. I want to see teachers and students together again," said the tearful Sangaji.

But Sangaji will probably not see a return to the good old days, at least not in the foreseeable future. This is because, as she says, parents traumatized by the violence in Ambon want to see only Muslims at the school.

"I think this society is sick. They (parents) don't realize that the Muslims do not have the means to compete with the Christians in terms of education. They have to think about the future of their children, and we have to be together again," she said.

Scores of schools in Ambon have been destroyed in the communal fighting. The state Pattimura University in Ambon is now little more than a pile of rubble.

Thousands of children have to attend makeshift classrooms erected in the numerous refugee camps throughout Maluku, where the displaced people rely on donors to survive.

Sangaji's school is typical of the state of the educational system in Ambon and throughout the island. Most teachers were Christian, and they all fled to Christian-controlled areas, probably for good. And many of the teachers from other provinces also fled and have not returned.

"We don't see any way to resolve the teacher shortage in the coming year," said F.R. Soulisa, the head of the Maluku provincial education office "This is ironic because schools in the Christian areas have more teachers than they need."

A school erected in Rimbaraya for 350 Christian families displaced from the neighboring Waai, in the western district of Passo, for example, has 60 teachers.

In an attempt to cope with this crisis, some Muslim groups and individuals have started teaching classes outside the school system. Abu Silawane, a Muslim college student, offers general classes such as Bahasa Indonesia and math, in addition to regular Koranic recital classes, at the Ar-Rahman Koranic course he established in November 1999 in the village of Batumerah.

About 400 pupils and mothers are taking the classes, which are aimed at disadvantaged children in the Muslim community. "The lessons being taught in the schools on general subjects are no longer adequate, and I mean to compensate for that," said Abu, a 25-year-old former non-governmental organization activist for street children.

The conflict has been difficult for even those few schools that have not been attacked, because their classes were disrupted by the people who took refuge in the buildings for months or even years.

The Kusu-Kusu Sereh Christian elementary school had to begin the long process of cleaning up, after the some 300 displaced people who had occupied the school for almost three years left. Left behind were overflowed septic tanks, broken water lines and destroyed desks.

The sectarian violence in Maluku has taken a heavy toll on the educational system and the educators.

Official statistics released by the local education office show that the conflict displaced 528 elementary school teachers, 211 junior high school teachers, 110 high school teachers and 56 vocational school teachers in 2001 alone.

Twenty-one schools have been badly damaged and 118 totally destroyed throughout Maluku, according to the statistics. In the outlying Southeast Maluku, which is accessible only by sea and air, almost all the school buildings were destroyed.

The local government has allocated over Rp 27 billion this year to begin rebuilding and renovating the schools, but then there is the money needed to purchase new books and equipment. Financial, material and technical assistance has been flowing in from local and international organizations. The World Bank, for example, has promised Rp 10.5 billion for educational projects.

But despite the aid, the coming years will be a difficult time for education in Maluku.