No classes in Kendari for 3 months

No classes in Kendari for 3 months

KENDARI, Southeast Sulawesi: Hundreds of elementary school students in restive and remote resettlement areas in Kendari regency have had no classes over the last three months because of the absence of teaching staff.

"I'm very sorry about the poor education program and will recruit teaching staff holding a Diploma 2 or Diploma 3 to be assigned to the villages," Kendari Regent Abdul Razak Porosi said in his field tour of the resettlement areas on Saturday.

Tens of teachers fled the resettlement areas from early Aug. 2001, due to the ethnically based rioting between native people and transmigrants, leaving dozens of houses ransacked. Despite the restoration of order, dozens of riot police are still on alert in several villages.

Abdul said that following the rioting, a teacher tried to stay in the resettlement area but subsequently left after finding that no other new teachers had been recruited. --Antara