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Jakarta Post

YPUI students look forward returning to class

Students at a South Jakarta school that caught fire on Sunday say they have no idea when or where they will resume classes

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, October 23, 2012 Published on Oct. 23, 2012 Published on 2012-10-23T10:13:23+07:00

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S

tudents at a South Jakarta school that caught fire on Sunday say they have no idea when or where they will resume classes.

“We were told to study at home, at least until Wednesday. The school will tell us what to do by Thursday if it has been decided,” said Bima Sakti, a first-grader at the junior high school, on Monday. “Some of my friends are happy about the day off. But I’m not, I don’t like long holidays. I get bored and forget about my studies,” he added.

The upper floor of the two-story school building owned by the Muslim Education Foundation (YPUI) in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, caught on fire on Sunday.

The fire destroyed all the classrooms on the second floor, important administrative papers and graduation certificates belonging to alumni who had yet to pick them up.

By Monday, the electricity at the school was still off. Classrooms on the lower floor were not severely damaged, but they were deemed unsafe to be used.

The school’s administration head, Udin Samsuddin, said school officials were in talks with the Jakarta education agency about the losses and possible locations to which to transfer the students.

“The losses include our notes on student fees. Some money was allegedly lost during the fire, too,” he said on Monday.

The students went to the school on Monday to get instructions from their teachers. Teachers say some elementary schools nearby may accept the students until the schoolhouse was repaired.

Udin said 27 rooms were needed to restart classes.

“We have yet to learn when the reconstruction will be completed. But for the time being, we will have to send the students to study at other places,” Udin said.

“But these places aren’t finalized yet. We have to first get the go ahead from the education agency.”

He said the students’ schedules would change as they would have to share classrooms with students of the host schools. “Students in the vocational school have morning classes. But we cannot guarantee that they will stay on their initial schedule,” he said.

Angga Sulistyo, a third-grader at the vocational high school, said he would have to reschedule his extra classes if they had to go to school in the afternoon.

“My extra classes are in the afternoon. I’ll have to reschedule all of them,” he said. “But that’s fine. This is a disaster for all of us here, I will comply to whatever the decision is.”

The fire was allegedly caused by a short circuit on Sunday morning. Tempo.co reported that 20 fire trucks were dispatched to the location to contain the fire. No casualties were reported.

Udin said the electricity fault may have been from a fan on the second floor.

“This building has been standing since 1985, I guess the dry wood of the classrooms enabled the fire to spread very fast,” he said. (fzm)

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