Students study amid dust, debris and termite nests

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang, The Jakarta Post

Second-grade students from state-elementary school 8, the only elementary school in Panunggangan subdistrict, Pinang district, Tangerang, played a guessing game as they waited for their teachers.

But their game stopped as two teachers, Sutrisno and Rosmaning, showed The Jakarta Post around their dirty classroom last Thursday.

"We're guessing who's table the insects will fall on today," 7-year-old Rahayu, one of the second-grade students, told the Post.

According to the students, the idea for the game was sparked by the frequency of a variety of insects falling on the student's desks from the roof. A startling experience.

A student spontaneously asked the Post: "Are you going to publish our school's story in the newspaper, mister journalist? When will our school will be repaired?".

Neither the teachers nor the Post could answer their last question. Instead, Sutrisno told his students to pray for the government to repair their badly-damaged school building immediately.

According to Tangerang mayoralty data, the state school is not the only school with terrible study conditions for its students. Most of the about 540 state elementary schools in Tangerang are in disrepair, with no efforts having been made to repair the buildings despite widespread publicity of the situation.

Every corner of school 8 was severely damaged. Parts of the roof were missing. The wood barely holding the roof up was infested with insect nests.

The ceiling and walls in almost every room in the school were holed. Parts of the roof were loose and posed a serious danger to the students below.

The floor was covered in dust.

Nonetheless, the students seemed to enjoy themselves as they played while awaiting their teachers. None seemed to realize the dilapidated school building was a hazard.

According to the teachers, the school building had been in disrepair since 2000 but they had no funds to repair it.

Sutrisno said they had repeatedly asked the Tangerang municipal administration to renovate the school building, but the municipal education agency had only sent officials to check the building. There had been no follow-up action.

"We can only hope now that the administration will soon repair the school building before it collapses and claims the lives of teachers and students," he said.