Lack of funds slows school refurb

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post/Tangerang

Nearly 1,250 of 1,784 state schools in Tangerang regency are in need of renovation, but the regency administration has only allocated enough money, about Rp 60 billion (US$6.45 million), to renovate 75 of the schools.

Tangerang regency education agency head Mas Iman Kusnandar said over the weekend the agency's priority was to renovate most of the 1,056 elementary schools in the regency.

"Most of the elementary schools were built in 1974 and they have never been renovated," he said.

"With such a limited budget allocation, we will only finish renovating all of the buildings in 10 years. By then, some of the schools will have collapsed before we had the chance to renovate them."

Two schools in the villages of Cinangka and Tapos in Tigaraksa district collapsed recently. Both schools had been on the regency administration's list of schools to be renovated in 2005.

In an effort to overcome the financial constraints, Regent Ismet Iskandar hopes to cooperate with the private sector in repairing the schools.

He said he would invite businesspeople to loan money for school renovation projects. The administration would then repay the low-interest loans on an installment scheme.

In addition to the disrepair of many of the regency's schools, Tangerang will also face a teacher shortage over the next five years as thousands of teachers reach retirement age.

"Some 3,600 teachers ... will retire in the next five years as they turn 50 years old," Kusnandar said, adding that the central government had yet to do anything about recruiting new teachers.

There are about 17,000 total teachers in the regency, some 8,000 of them contract teachers.