Students go to class hungry no books and uniforms

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many students are being forced to study in appalling conditions due to the recent floods that inundated their schools, while many others have been prevented from attending classes because their schools are still flooded or are being used as shelters for the flood victims.

Among the students who still have a school to go to, many have been attending their lessons hungry as there is nothing for them to eat in their still-flooded homes.

One teacher, Rismu, has been donating her own food to hungry students whose homes in Cipinang Indah, East Jakarta, are still flooded.

"What a pity. They look so hungry ...," said Rismu, who teaches at the Santa Maria junior high school in Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

Her students were doing tests on the veranda outside their classroom on Thursday as it was too dark to work in the classroom due to a power blackout.

They were sitting their second term tests under petromax (hurricane lamp).

There are also many students, like Melissa, 7, and her younger sister Meilani, 6, from the Kebon Manggis elementary school, who have to go to school without books, uniforms, or shoes. They lost all their schoolbooks when the floods swept away their home on the side of the Ciliwung river in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta

Their mother said they had received no assistance in the form of books, uniforms or other school requirements.

Ardi and Didi, who study in state elementary school SDN 06 in Gudang Peluru, Kebon Baru, South Jakarta, said they could not study as their school was still being used as a shelter for flood victims. On Monday, after having been off school for a week, they returned to school for two hours of classes.

"But, yesterday and today, we're off as many flood victims are still taking refuge in my school," said Ardi.

The floods returned on Wednesday to swamp hundreds of homes, especially along the banks of the Ciliwung River, forcing thousands of residents to abandon their houses again for temporary shelters.

Didi said his home was still inundated by the floodwater up to a depth of 40 centimeters. "Fortunately, my father has put all my books in a safe place," he said.

Meanwhile, students of the SMU 8 state high school in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, had to move to an alternative site as their classrooms were still full of stinking mud, while their schoolyard was still inundated by water up to a depth of about 30 centimeters.

"The third year students have moved to a building on Jl. Dewi Sartika, East Jakarta, while the other students are studying at another place nearby in Tebet Dalam," said an employee, Tukino.

The floods have destroyed everything in the school's office, including computers, blackboards and documents, and also washed away the school walls.

During the height of the floods, the water reached 150 centimeters in depth.

According to the city administration, a total of 802 schools have been damaged and over 180,000 students have had their education disrupted.