For elementary school SD Kasih Immanuel near Jakarta Bay in Cilincing district, North Jakarta, a big threat to their studies might be just around the corner as the area has recently been hit with heavy rains.

The school, which is run by the Kasih Immanuel Foundation, has fallen victim to floods in past rainy seasons.

'€œFloods are like our annual guest, they usually start in January or February every year when heavy rains begin,'€ the foundation'€™s executive chairman, George Backer Leegstra, said on Monday.

He added that the floods usually forced him to shutdown all learning activities, not only at SD Kasih Immanuel but also at the foundation'€™s kindergarten and junior high schools that occupy the same two-story building.

'€œLearning activities are usually paralyzed for four to 10 days because inundation in the building can reach 20 to 40 centimeters high,'€ he said, adding that the second floor of the building was usually utilized as a temporary shelter for around 10 families during floods.

Despite the common occurrences of flooding, George acknowledged that he and his staff were not prepared for such disasters.

'€œWe just let them happen. The only thing we do is keep important documents above a cupboard,'€ he said, adding that several books kept in the lower part of the cupboard would usually get ruined by the flooding.

To help the school become better prepared, international NGO Save the Children has chosen the school to be among the 40 elementary schools in the district to take part in its four-year Jakarta safe school pilot program.

'€œWe'€™re not aiming for infrastructure reconstruction with the program. Beyond that we are encouraging locals to help make the schools comfortable places to study,'€ said Save the Children senior program officer Andy Widayat.

'€œSD Kasih Immanuel, would train both teachers and students to prepare before floods and advocate local residents to not use the school building as a shelter so that it could still be used for learning activities during floods,'€ he added.

Andy said that the needs of other elementary schools in the district differed from those of SD Kasih Immanuel.

He said that for neighboring elementary school SD Kampung Sawah, an exclusive study environment was needed besides flood preparation training.

The school, which is only tens of meters away from the former, has no fences separating its building from a residential area.

Noises from household activities in the housing complex often disrupt learning activities.

One of the school teachers, Nur Asri Noviana, said that the school'€™s environment was not conducive for studying.

'€œMany students play in the housing complex during breaks and some come back late,'€ she told The Jakarta Post.

SD Kasih Immanuel and SD Kampung Sawah are only two out of 251 elementary schools in the city unable to continue on with learning activities during floods, according to a data of the Jakarta Education Agency.

Save the Children education in emergencies specialist Yuniarti Wahyuningtyas said that her organization expected the program to be sustainable.

'€œWe are trying to provide a model of excellence and we expect the city and municipality administrations to continue implementing the program,'€ she said. (koi)

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