Jakarta Education Agency Admits Many Old Schools Still Need Repair

The Jakarta Education Office (Disdik DKI) has acknowledged that many state school buildings in the capital are ageing and require repair.

Head of the Jakarta Education Office Nahdiana said this was one of the reasons the Jakarta Provincial Government is mapping out which schools should be prioritised for revitalisation.

“If we classify them by when they were built, some of our buildings were constructed before I was even born,” Nahdiana said during a working meeting with Commission E of the Jakarta Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD DKI) at the DPRD DKI building in Gambir, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

According to the Education Office’s data, Nahdiana noted that some schools were even established before 1947. Several of these are cultural heritage buildings, requiring special handling.

“So among these, 13 buildings are heritage structures,” Nahdiana explained.

She added that only around 40 per cent of school buildings in Jakarta were built within the last 20 years.

This means many school buildings are more than 20 years old and require attention.

To address this, Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung has formed a School Building Revitalisation Acceleration Team.

“It is steered by the Assistant for Development and the Environment, and the Assistant for People’s Welfare. The chair is the Deputy Head of the Education Office, with the secretary being the Head of the Education Facilities and Infrastructure UPT and the Head of the Buildings Division at the Regional Government Buildings and Public Works Office. Its members include the Inspectorate, the mayors, Bappeda, BPKD, BPAD, the Public Works Office, BPMPTSP, Diskominfotik, PLH, BPPBJ, and Kesos,” Nahdiana said.

Nahdiana further explained that the team will not only inspect the 22 schools already on the revitalisation list.

The team will also review other schools suspected of suffering damage so that development priorities can be more accurately targeted.

“Later it will become clear whether a school needs a complete overhaul, or just heavy renovation and so on. Because that team will determine the development priorities. In simple terms, everything will be put in order,” Nahdiana said.

In addition, the team will investigate the construction process so that obstacles causing project delays can be anticipated from the outset.