Indramayu seeks funds to renovate 416 schools

Nana Rukmana , The Jakarta Post, Indramayu, West Java

At least 416 out of 960 state and Islamic elementary schools in Indramayu regency are in serious need of repair as a result of age and general neglect.

However, the Indramayu administration has said it does not have the money to repair all of the schools, raising concerns over the safety of students.

According to information gathered by The Jakarta Post from various sources within the Indramayu administration, the run-down schools are scattered throughout 28 districts in the regency.

Indramayu Regent Irianto M.S. Syafiuddin said the cash- strapped local government would only be able to repair about 200 of the schools. The remaining schools, over 200 in number, will be repaired as the money becomes available.

Besides age, natural disasters such as floods are also to blame for the condition of some of the schools, Irianto said.

"We must also improve awareness of the importance of building maintenance. We must find the funds for building maintenance to prevent the school buildings from becoming completely unusable," he said on Friday.

The money for repairing school buildings comes from the regency budget, he said.

The regency has also requested additional funds from the West Java provincial budget and the central government.

"Besides local funding, we have also received aid from the World Bank through the Basic Education Project program. The aid is part of the basic education improvement program in Indramayu regency," he said.

The regent said the amount of aid received by the regency was considerable, though he could not give an exact figure. "I have forgotten the precise amount ... but the figure reaches billions of rupiah."

Irianto also said that in order to secure the funding required for the school repairs, the regency was reaching out to the business community.

"We are approaching several local businesspeople who are concerned about the state of education, especially at the elementary school level. We have to take this step because the regency administration does not have the funds to deal with this problem on its own."

However, the regent said that despite the sorry state of many of the schools in the regency, the learning process itself was continuing with few problems.

"The learning process is going well in the damaged schools. I have urged the teachers to continue working hard to educate the children. I told them the government is trying its best to repair the schools," he said.