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Rehabilitation of some dilapidated schools in Jakarta ‘can wait until 2021’
The Rp 2.1 trillion (US$ 150 million) for school renovation projects around the capital has been slashed to Rp 1.4 trillion.
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Illustration of a dilapidated school building. (tempo.co/Suryo Wibowo)
F
rom the outside, the school building looks just fine but looks can be deceiving. One of the first things you notice after stepping into the school is a strong odor and toilet water dripping into classrooms. With missing and broken roof tiles, the building leaks so badly that it is dangerous for people to run on slippery floors when it rains.
The two-story building on Jl. Utama Raya in Cengkareng Barat subdistrict, West Jakarta, houses three state elementary schools: SD 01 Pagi and SD 02 Petang, which take turns using the ground floor in the morning and afternoon, and SD 12 Pagi, which holds morning classes above. More than 600 children are enrolled in the three schools.
The Jakarta administration had earmarked the school for renovations, along with 86 other dilapidated schools in the capital. However, when the administration slashed its budget for 2020 last month, the Cengkareng Barat school was removed from the list, as were 29 others.
The Rp 2.1 trillion (US$ 150 million) for school renovation projects around the capital has been slashed to Rp 1.4 trillion as the city administration reviews its 2020 budget. The allocation for school repairs had increased in the last five years, reaching Rp 2.02 trillion in 2019.
“It’s been like this for two years,” said a teacher at Cengkarang Barat. “Now we only use two restrooms [out of four] that work,” she told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Since being built in 1984, the school has never been renovated. Now the entire building shakes whenever a big truck passes.
Repairs will be prioritized if money is available, another teacher said.
