Elementary schools in Banjarnegara in need of repair, close to collapse

Elementary schools in Banjarnegara in need of repair, close to collapse

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Banjarnegara

Most of the 722 state elementary schools in the Central Java town
of Banjarnegara are in need of structural repair, with a dozen of
them having collapsed in recent months, injuring several
students.

The situation has caused widespread fear among school
children.

"During the last month alone, four state elementary school
buildings have collapsed. We are extremely worried about these
incidents," Deputy Banjarnegara Regent Hadi Supeno said on
Saturday.

The latest accident occurred last week at Punggelan elementary
school, when at least 11 pupils were injured and had to undergo
hospital treatment after their school building caved in.

Hadi said several cases of collapse were due to the lack of
funding by the central government to repair the old buildings.

Around 60 percent, or 400 all the elementary school buildings,
have suffered damage and at least 300 of them have suffered
serious damage, he said.

He added that apart from the age of the buildings, most being
more than 20 years old, the quality of their construction was
poor as they had been built by unprofessional developers.

Hadi explained that many buildings were built with poor
quality wood from coconut palms, even though developers had
proposed high quality wood.

"This should be taken as a lesson. Many developers were
incompetent. There are tens of state elementary school buildings
under three years old, but many of them are already falling
apart," he said.

Most of the buildings suffered damage to their wooden pillars,
floors and walls.

To renovate the damaged buildings would cost at least Rp 200
million each, or Rp 80 billion in total for all the 400 schools,
Hadi said.

Citing financial difficulties, he said the local
administration could only afford to help repair 50 elementary
schools in the regency, with each receiving Rp 40 million for
repair work.

"We won't hand over any more development projects to
developers. We can't trust them anymore. Let local people
renovate their respective school buildings," he said.

Hadi said his office would seek foreign funds and aid from the
central government to help finance the rehabilitation of all the
damaged school buildings.

Local people, he added, have also been asked to assist in the
financing of the project.