Education in Maluku reduce to a pile of rubble

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.