Pondok Indah school is losing students

Pondok Indah school is losing students

JAKARTA (JP): A school in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta is
rapidly losing its students due to the expansion of a nearby
development project.

"We could just sell the plot and move, but we have a
responsibility to the residents that began the school in the late
1960s," Syaifuddin, one of the school's founders, told The
Jakarta Post.

Around 100 students have left the Al-Fauzain elementary
madrasah ibtidaiyah Islamic school, which once boasted 400
students.

Students started to decrease as families began moving out in
1987, when construction of the Pondok Indah mosque began,
Syaifuddin said.

Syaifuddin, who is also the head of the neighborhood,
regretted that PT Metropolitan Kencana has not approached the
school.

He also said residents have yet to reach agreement on a
proposal they are considering to present to the company that they
can be moved as a community.

The development project is under PT Metropolitan Kencana,
which first began developing the Pondok Indah area into luxurious
housing complexes in the 1970s.

The school, located in a kampong of the Pondok Pinang
subdistrict, lies right across the street from the Masjid Raya
Pondok Indah mosque.

"We are worried about the education of the children,"
Syaifuddin said. He could not guarantee that current first
graders could complete their education at the school.

"Every day, you can see families moving out their furniture,"
a local resident said.

A representative of the company, Purwoto, confirmed there has
been no negotiations as of yet on the school site.

"We have not approached the school yet," Purwoto said.

The company is now buying up land from families who have
agreed to its prices, he added.

Purwoto said land price per square meter is Rp 1 million
(US$426.80) to Rp 2 million. However, residents have said that
the land is being sold for Rp 850,000 to Rp 950,000 per square
meter through brokers.

"But the value of the homes is not taken into account,"
Syaifuddin said.

The school and the surrounding kampong, which is next to the
ongoing construction of the Wisma Pondok Indah office building,
will be made into an additional office building area, Purwoto
said.

Syamsul Bahri, a teacher at the school, said the school may
have to move out by the year 2000, given its rapid loss of
students.

"If one family sells out (to the developer), this could mean
that three students will leave the school. If the family owns a
row of rented houses, this means all our students who live there
will move out," added Syamsul, who is also a resident of the
area.

In addition, Syamsul noted that should the school move out, it
will mean "starting from zero". The school will have to seek out
new students, who may not be able to pay the monthly Rp 6,000
school fees, he said.

Syamsul, who teaches four subjects and four classes in the
morning and afternoon, claimed that the school's graduates are
relatively better off than those of other madrasah in the area.

"It is prestigious enough for a madrasah to have 16 graduates
who made it to the state-owned SMP 87 junior high school (in
Pondok Pinang) like we did last year," he said. "Others have one
or two or none."

Islamic madrasah schools teach both the general curricula and
special subjects on the Koran and Islam. (anr)