Govt to restore schools in disaster areas
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of National Education is set to begin rehabilitating thousands of elementary and junior high school buildings in disaster-hit and riot-torn areas beginning March, an official said on Monday.
"We hope to start the rehabilitation projects in March using the US$30 million grant from the Netherlands," Directorate General for Primary and Secondary Education Indra Djati Sidi said.
"But we have to make several adjustments since many more schools were damaged during recent calamities such as landslides, floods and typhoons in the provinces of Banten, North Sulawesi and Lampung," Indra told members of the media in his office.
The government will also begin its school rehabilitation scheme with the proposed budget of Rp 73 billion (US$7.6 million) in nine regencies crowded with refugees from natural disasters and riots, he said.
The nine provinces are Bengkulu, West Java, West Kalimantan, Maluku, North Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, Irian Jaya, Aceh and Central Sulawesi.
Indra also revealed that two schools in East Java were vandalized by mobs during a protest by supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid on Feb. 3.
"The two schools were SMU Muhammadiyah II High School in Sidoardjo and a kindergarten belonging to the Al-Irsyad foundation in Patokan subdistrict of Probolinggo, all in East Java. The mobs damaged gates, doors, windows, bicycles and typewriters ... losses amount to about Rp 21 million," he said.
He further called on the people staging protests and expressing their aspirations not to resort to violence and destroy public facilities.
"Such political activities must be separated from schools or the learning process ... people must be aware that school and education is a significant field that cannot be continually interrupted," Indra said.
"Political upheaval and over democratic zeal have brought unintended consequences that have disrupted the national education process ... students leave classes for protests all the time and days taken off due to fears of riots, all contribute to the slow improvement of education," Indra said.
Speaking about the plan to hold joint National Test for University Entrance (UMPTN) and National Exam (Ebtanas), Indra said that all related parties including the Directorate General for Higher Education will further discuss the details with members of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Feb. 20.
"Basically we are trying to run an effective, economical and psychologically-supportive national test for senior high school students who wish to go to universities," Indra said.
On the school-based management program, Indra said that pilot projects on "the appointment of school principals" will begin in a couple of months.
"The school community, comprising teachers, parents, local leaders and officials will together decide and set recruitment standards for the appropriate principals and the central government will then install the appointed figure as a school principal," Indra said. (edt)