'€œDirty'€, '€œabandoned'€ and '€œmisused'€ are words that can describe the condition of state elementary schools SDN Duri Kepa 01 and SDN Duri Kepa 10 in Kebon Jeruk subdistrict, West Jakarta.

The two-story building that houses the schools had been completely ruined by a fire taking place in May last year. There is nothing left in the building but the damaged roof, decayed walls and broken doors and windows.

 The building'€™s front yard is full of dried animal dung after being misused by school guard Nur Ali and his relatives for selling cows and goats several days before Idul Adha (Islamic day of sacrifice) that fell on Tuesday.

 SDN Duri Kepa 10 headmistress Lince Pasaribu said that the school guard took the temporary sacrificial animal shop down only after it had received media attention.

Lince said that she never allowed Nur to use the yard for selling animals, but she could not prevent him because he kept the key to the building'€™s gate.

 '€œNow we don'€™t allow him to have the key to avoid any unwanted incidents. We used to trust him to keep the key because he has worked here for a long time, but he apparently abused our trust,'€ she added.

 While the building is paralyzed, the two schools are temporarily moving their educational activities next door to the state elementary schools SDN Duri Kepa 11 and SDN Duri Kepa 12 from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. after the hosts finish their own educational activities in the morning.

 '€œBecause the educational activities have been moved to an inconvenient period of time, SDN Duri Kepa 01 and SDN Duri Kepa 10 have so far lost around 30 students,'€ Lince said, while showing the data on the students having left their schools. The two schools currently had 440 students, she added.

 '€œSome parents don'€™t support their children to study with the change of the hours from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,'€ Lince said, adding that her students used to study from morning to midday at the old building.

 She expected the government to repair the schools soon, so that things could return to normal. '€œIt is not good to stay at other people'€™s respectable location. Some students fall asleep in class,'€ she added.

 Lince disclosed that officials of West Jakarta'€™s education and housing agencies had previously promised to renovate the schools soon after the fire incident with a total budget of around Rp 1.4 billion (US$123,708), but they changed their decision and delayed the renovation until next year.

 However, in July, housing agency officials paid a visit again and announced that the schools had to be reconstructed next year, instead of being renovated.

 West Jakarta Elementary Education Agency head Delly Indirayati informed that the building would be reconstructed with an estimated budget of Rp 4 billion.

 Contacted separately, Jakarta Education Agency head Taufik Yudi confirmed that the agency would start the reconstruction work in the third or fourth quarter of next year.

 Taufik said the two schools in Duri Kepa were just part of the schools in Jakarta that needed reconstruction.

This year alone, the agency would reconstruct 38 schools across the city and renovate 100 to 200 schools at a total cost of Rp 4.5 trillion or 37.5 percent of the agency'€™s total annual budget. (koi)

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