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)