T

he Jakarta administration will rehabilitate hundreds of damaged school buildings as part of its program aimed at providing Jakarta students with proper facilities in 2017.

Jakarta Education Agency data show that of the 1,708 school buildings in the capital, only 885 were deemed in good condition.

The agency'€™s head, Sophan Adrianto, said that the administration had allocated Rp 1.2 trillion (US$89.6 million) this year to rehabilitate 156 school buildings that had sustained minor to severe damage.

'€œWe are focusing on improving the quality of education, including education facilities. We plan to finish rehabilitating the 156 schools within a year,'€ said Sophan on Monday, adding that the agency was holding tenders for the projects.

He added that the agency hoped the tenders would be complete sometime between April and May to enable the project to kick off in the near future.

Sophan further said that aside from the 156 damaged schools, the administration would also rehabilitate six other schools that were initially planned to be restored last year. The project was halted after contractors assigned to carry out the restorations neglected their responsibilities.

The six schools include SMP 125 state junior high school in West Jakarta, SMP 64 state junior high school in South Jakarta and an integrated school located in the Marunda low-cost rented apartments in North Jakarta.

Learning from past experiences, the administration will only work with prominent and reliable contractors to carry out this year'€™s rehabilitation projects, Sophan added. It will also hire consultants to supervise the project on the field.

'€œWe have set a target that by the end of 2017, we will no longer find damaged school buildings in the city,'€ Sophan said. He added that the administration would continue to restore 627 other schools next year with a Rp 3 trillion budget.

Of the 627 schools, the agency will be responsible for restoring 133 buildings that require total renovation. The remaining others will be rehabilitated by its subagencies, which are responsible for restoring schools with moderate to severe damage.

'€œMeanwhile, schools with minor damage will be restored by school authorities,'€ Sophan added.

Last week, the foundation of a library at SMK 61 state vocational high school on Tidung Island, Thousand Islands, sank and injured one teacher.

In the same week, authorities of SD Utan Kayu 08 Pagi state elementary school in East Jakarta evacuated 219 students and moved classroom activities to the neighboring SD Utan Kayu 07 Pagi state elementary school, which has suffered from collapsing and leaking roofs. Principal Rita Butar said renovations had been requested since 2014, when a roof collapsed. The renovation proposal has not been followed up, although renovations were promised.