Schools to be built on stilts in flood-prone areas
Schools to be built on stilts in flood-prone areas
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration plans to build
elementary school buildings in flood-prone areas on raised
platforms to ensure that school documents and furniture remain
intact when heavy rain hits the areas.
Soeparmo, the head of the city education agency, which is in
charge of only elementary education, says the city plans to
rebuild schools in at least 100 locations recorded as being
vulnerable to flooding.
The project is scheduled to start next year, and the City
Council has approved the plan, he said yesterday.
The estimated cost of one raised-platform school building is
Rp 700 million (US$305,000).
New buildings will have three stories, while the platforms
will be three meters above the ground.
While access roads to schools may be flooded, "at least
documents will not be lost," he said yesterday.
The floods in January and February forced children to stay
home and schools suffered severe losses.
"We cannot count the losses of documents like report cards,"
Soeparmo said. "Documents were all washed away at some schools in
Bidara Cina, Jatinegara (East Jakarta) and Kebon Baru (South
Jakarta)."
Previous estimates of repairs to schools hit by floods
exceeded Rp 3.63 billion. Six of the worst hit schools were two
in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, two in Kebayoran Baru and
Pengadegan, South Jakarta, and two in Bidara Cina and Cililitan,
East Jakarta.
"Floods are unpredictable now," Soeparmo said, which is why
the sites of the schools picked for reconstruction are in all
five mayoralties.
Chairman of the council's commission for social welfare, Atje
Muljadi, said the commission supports any plan that enables
students to study better.
"We also urge that the city provides funds to repair access
roads to schools," to prevent prolonged absences from school in
times of flood, Atje said.
Soeparmo said as of the 1994/1995 fiscal year, funding for
school renovations now comes from the respective mayoralty
budgets.
The city budget for elementary education is currently Rp 47
billion, while the allocated funds from mayoralties totals Rp 34
billion, Soeparmo said.
"This way mayors have more responsibility to be more alert to
report of school repair needs," Soeparmo said.
"Now I can telephone mayors when I see a news report of
damaged schools, and the mayors say they will act immediately,"
he said.
The agency, he added, is also suggesting to the municipality
that as of next year principals should be allotted at least Rp 3
million a year for school building maintenance costs.
This will enable schools to make minor repairs immediately
instead of having to let damage become unnecessarily worse.
"Currently principals only have the 'education operational
assistance aid' from the central government, which is Rp 750,000
a year," Soeparmo said.
The scarce resources are said to be the source of frequent
complaints from parents. They say that city-owned schools, though
relatively cheap, demand an unpredictable variety of fees. Among
these are picnic contributions, money to buy chalk and funds to
replace light bulbs.
To overcome this problem the agency has also proposed that
teachers' and parents' associations draw up annual proposed
budgets, Soeparmo said. (anr)