Group presses mayor on school closure
The Jakarta Post | Jakarta | Sat, August 18 2012, 1:55 PM
Paper Edition | Page: 9
The parent of a student at SD Leuwinanggung elementary school in Depok managed to gather 1,000 signatures for a petition demanding Mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail ensure the school would not be closed as a result of an ongoing land dispute.
“We will not move our children to other schools. We want the school to exist. A school closure is on par with a violation of the basic right to education. We call on the Depok administration to provide legal certainty and to protect our children’s right to education,” said Verra Teguh, 35, when she reported the mayor to the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) on Thursday.
The mother of Ansharsyah Geuvarra, 10, said that the owner of land on which the school was built had sealed the school on June 19 in a dispute with the local administration. The owner claimed that after renting the land to the administration in 1976, no rent had been paid since 1980.
Although the school’s activities have returned normal, the administration has yet to settle the issue with the land’s owner. Over 1,080 people signed the online petition available at www.change.org/izinkankamisekolah.
