Elementary school roof collapses

TANGERANG: Part of the roof of state elementary school SDN 8 on Jl. Amil Murin in Panunggangan subdistrict, Pinang district, Tangerang, collapsed on Wednesday morning.

No one was injured as the incident took place at 6 a.m. before school starts.

According to Sutrisno, a teacher, the beams supporting the roof were termite-infested.

"We repeatedly asked the municipal administration to renovate the school building, but Mayor M. Thamrin only sent the municipal agency chief, Harry Mulya Zain, last month to announce that the wooden beams supporting the roof were to be replaced with bamboo," he said.

After the incident, students of grade five and six were forced to study in the same classroom, while those of three and four also shared a classroom.

The staff room was also damaged, and so teachers used a room in one of the teachers' houses in the school compound.

There are 240 students in SDN 8, the only state elementary school in the subdistrict.

The incident upset parents.

"This is shameful. Mayor M. Thamrin turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the hazards threatening students and teachers. Is this what regional autonomy gives to the public?" Nurdin, an angry father of a student who lives near the school, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Nurdin said that he and other parents were worried about their children studying at the school, but they had no choice as there was no other state elementary school in Panunggangan. --JP