Make state schools earthquake proof: BNPB

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) says that the education ministry’s recently announced plan to rehabilitate deteriorating state schools should incorporate earthquake proofing measures, as 64 regencies in 16 provinces were highly prone to tectonic activity.

BNPB disaster risk reduction director Teddy W. Sudinda said that the safety standard guide for schools included retrofitting schools with tools to protect them from tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

He said that the standardized means and tools had not been outlined by the National Education Ministry, the Public Works Ministry and BNPB.

“School building safety is a combination of good construction, a secure neighborhood and an environment with a disaster alarm, which must involve all stakeholders – administrators, students, teachers and the school’s committee,” he said.

He added that the BNPB strongly suggested that the National Education Ministry fulfill the safety standards in its plan to repair damaged schools in the country.

The National Education Ministry has announced that it will spend Rp 2.8 trillion (US$327.6 million) over the next two months renovating 21,500 severely damaged school classrooms all across the country.

It also said that it planned to allocate at least Rp 17.6 trillion of the total state budget allocation it would receive in 2012 to renovate a further 131,526 classrooms, of which 92,598 were in elementary schools and 38,928 in junior high schools.

Teddy said that BNPB had reconstructed 244 earthquake resistant schools in collaboration with domestic and foreign donors – 4 in North Sumatra, 29 in West Sumatra, 14 in Jambi, 135 in Central Java, 10 in West Nusa Tenggara, 50 in West Papua and 2 in Papua.

He said that BNPB had recommended that the government allocate the DAK for education to help reconstruct schools at disaster-hit areas such as Wasior, Mentawai and Yogyakarta, because the funds had not been used to construct earthquake-resistant schools nationally.

BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that the DAK funds would cover three pilot projects this year, before being distributed nationwide next year.

Family Forum Concerned with Education (KerLip) chairwoman Yanti Sriyulianti told the Post that her organization and its networking groups were proposing that West Sumatra and West Java be included in BNPB’s pilot projects this year.

“Earthquakes in both provinces severely damaged many schools,” she said.

The World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) recorded that earthquakes and tsunamis had damaged 750 schools in Aceh in 2004, 2,900 in Yogyakarta in 2006, 241 in Padang in 2009 and seven in Mentawai.

A year after education authorities had promised, the House of Representatives finally approved the special allocation fund worth Rp 10 trillion to rebuild schools in disaster-hit areas on Aug. 3.

National Education Deputy Minister Fasli Djalal said that 65 percent of the fund was allocated for the reconstruction of schools damaged by disasters, and the other 35 percent would be used to replace damaged facilities and materials such as books.

“We will note BNPB’s suggestion on the safety standards of schools’ renovation and we expect all stakeholders, including the press, to remind us of this,” he said. (msa)