The basic and middle education agency plans to allocate about Rp 466 billion (US$42 million) to renovate 405 damaged school buildings in five municipalities across the capital.

Eleven schools will be completely renovated, while the remaining 394 schools will receive new roofs, said the education agency head, Sukesti Martono, on Tuesday.

"It would take a lot of money to completely renovate all schools. So we decided to just replace the wooden roofs with solid material, like lightweight steel frames, to extend their lifetime," said Sukesti, adding that budget for a total renovation of schools was ten times higher than the budget for replacing roofs.

The head of the agency's technical and facility division, Didi Sugandhi, said the agency would prioritize school buildings over 25 years of age.

"For schools with complete renovation, we will prioritize buildings over 35 years and with at least 65 percent of their premises damaged," Didi said at City Hall.

According to the agency's data, East Jakarta has the highest number of damaged school buildings with 141 elementary and 20 junior high schools, followed by South Jakarta with 126 elementary and eight junior high schools.

North Jakarta is third with 38 elementary and 11 junior high schools, while West Jakarta comes in fourth with 27 damaged elementary schools and eight junior high schools.

Central Jakarta has the least damaged schools with 15 elementary school buildings.

The agency also plans to renovate two elementary school buildings in Thousand Islands regency.

"Students will be moved to nearby district offices or education subagencies during the renovation," Didi said.

"In North Jakarta, we will prioritize the renovation of school buildings in flood-prone areas."

He said the City Council had approved the renovation of 284 school buildings so far, requiring Rp 348 billion in funds.

"We hope that the other 110 schools can receive assistance next year. Otherwise, we will renovate the buildings in 2010," Didi said.

Earlier, deputy governor Prijanto said some of the city's older schools were in desperate need of restoration, and that he did not want to hear about collapsing school infrastructure anymore.

Education is the main focus of the administration's 2009 budget.

Under the draft 2009 budget, the administration has allocated more than Rp 5.1 trillion (or 23 percent of the 2009 total budget) toward education.

The number is almost 6 percent higher than this year's budget of Rp 4.9 trillion. -- JP/Triwik Kurniasari

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