Jakarta School Building Collapse Forces 274 Students into Merger Plan
The condition of educational infrastructure in Jakarta has again come under the spotlight after the building of SDN Kebayoran Lama Selatan 09 Pagi was reported to have collapsed in November 2024. The incident, which coincided with the Jakarta regional head elections (Pilkada), has left problems for hundreds of pupils who have lost a proper place to learn.
The damage to the SDN Kebayoran Lama Selatan 09 building is significant. According to collected data, five main rooms were directly affected by the collapse of the roof and building structure, comprising:
Although the physical damage is concentrated in those five rooms, the school authorities and the relevant agency decided to halt all teaching and learning activities at the site for safety reasons. This affects the 274 pupils from grades 1 to 6 currently enrolled at the school.
As an emergency measure to ensure pupils’ right to education remains fulfilled, all pupils of SDN Kebayoran Lama Selatan 09 have had to share facilities at the nearest school. The chosen location is SDN Kebayoran Lama Selatan 11 Pagi, which is located geographically right next to the collapsed building.
This sharing arrangement naturally brings its own challenges for school management, teachers and pupils, given that the SDN 11 Pagi building must accommodate two different school populations at the same time.
The South Jakarta Education Sub-department (Sudin) Region I has prepared a long-term step to resolve this issue. The head of Sudin Pendidikan Wilayah I South Jakarta, Santoso, stated that the main solution to be taken is a merger between SDN Kebayoran Lama Selatan 09 and SDN Kebayoran Lama Selatan 11 Pagi.
“For the effectiveness and efficiency of management at the level of the education unit (school),” said Santoso when giving a statement in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The following are the main points of the school’s construction and management plan:
Given the importance of safe and independent educational facilities, accelerated construction is the main hope for parents and teaching staff. Although the budgeting mechanism in DKI Jakarta is carried out in stages, the urgency of repairing the building that collapsed in late 2024 has become a priority so that teaching and learning activities can return to normal in their own building. (Ant/I-1)