Lack of funds halts school renovation

CILACAP, Central Java: A limited budget has put a halt to a renovation project for 800 elementary school buildings in the regency. Head of the regental education agency Sutoyo said that there were 1,132 elementary schools and that 70 percent of them were damaged.

"The buildings are already old and they need renovation. But the budget we have only comes to 10 percent of the needed funds," he said on Monday, adding that the renovation was estimated to cost Rp 100 billion (US$12.2 million).

The agency has started to combine several schools into a single institute in order to overcome the lack of funds, as well as to anticipate a drop in students for the upcoming academic year.

Sutoyo said that there were 82 combined schools so far, which cost the agency Rp 3 billion. The process is expected to be completed next year. -- JP