Pupils taught in cramped conditions

TANGERANG: About 2,500 students from nine state elementary schools have to share four school buildings located on a plot of land on Jl. HOS Cokro Aminoto, Kreo, Larangan Utara subdistrict.

Each school has only five classrooms and there are between 40 and 60 students to a room. Students have to take class in turn and sometimes one table is shared by two or three students, according to the school principal of SDN I State Elementary School, Abdul Hamid.

He told The Jakarta Post that there used to be four elementary schools on the 1.4 hectare plot of land, namely SDN I, SDN II, SDN III and SDN IV.

"But recently, the four schools were transformed into nine schools, without any additional buildings and other supporting facilities," he said.

He said that parents of the children who go to SDN VII school and SDN VIII school had raised funds for the construction of new school buildings as they had been greatly concerned with their children's education.

A municipal councillor said that 80 percent of the 413 schools in Tangerang share their buildings with other schools. -- JP