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.