TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Quake-ruined schools turn students away
Enjoying the cool air early on Monday morning after the rains the night before, 10-year-old Septiarisani walked cheerfully to her school in downtown Padang, West Sumatra, expecting to meet friends she had not seen since the quake devastated the coastal city last week
Change Size
E
njoying the cool air early on Monday morning after the rains the night before, 10-year-old Septiarisani walked cheerfully to her school in downtown Padang, West Sumatra, expecting to meet friends she had not seen since the quake devastated the coastal city last week.
However, her expectations were not met.
"Usually, kids fill the schoolyard, playing before the bell rings. But they are not here now," Tia, as her friends call her, told The Jakarta Post near the damaged school corridor.
In one corner of the school, six-grader Evan Prahadi, sat alone, his eyes wandering around the schoolyard. The Wednesday quake had damaged his house, with a part of the roof collapsed.
Of the more than 1,300 students at Gugus 1 Alang Lawas Elementary School, less than 50 showed up that morning. Those who did show up were told to return home to wait until further notice as to when the school would reopen.
Tia and Evan said they would wait, but hoped they would not have to wait long.
Yusmaida, 50, a principal of one of the schools, said the city administration had announced that teaching-learning facilities should resume on Monday.
"But considering the damage to our *school* building, I don't think we are ready to reopen yet," she said.
Local senior education agency official Bambang Sutrisno said Monday at least 430 classrooms had been damaged by the 7.6-magnitude quake.
"We are still calculating the number of schools damaged by the quake," he said.
The city administration was hoping teaching-learning activities would resume next Monday, Bambang said.
The West Sumatra natural disaster mitigation board (Satkorlak) has recorded a total of 503 school buildings damaged in the quake, 241 of which need to be rebuilt.
The organization has set up 15 tents for use as temporary classrooms in the regencies of Padang, Padang Pariaman and Pesisir Selatan, each with room for 50 to 60 children. Another 228 tents are currently being shipped from Jakarta for the same purpose.
Amson Simbolon, an education officer for UNICEF, said Monday his office was also sending 60 recreation kits and 60 school equipment boxes to Padang.
