

Multa Fidrus
The Jakarta Post, Lebak, Banten
The new school year has just started but already dozens of students at an elementary school in Lebak regency, Banten province, are feeling the pain.
Students at Cigelung Ilir elementary school have to sit on the floor for hours at a time, trying to concentrate on their lessons as the feeling slowly goes out of the legs.
The desks and chairs at the school were tossed out when they became impossible to fix anymore.
Aimar, 9, said when school ended for the day it took him several minutes to manage to stand up again.
"Sitting cross-legged on the floor for hours makes our feet and legs fall asleep and it takes time to wake them up again. We need to stretch out the muscles," he said Tuesday.
Aimar said following lessons was also difficult because the students had to keep looking up from the floor at their teachers and the blackboard, hurting their backs and necks.
"This is a reality that teachers and students have to accept. The school building has been renovated but we do not have new furniture and other supporting facilities," said one of the teachers, who asked that her name not be used because she was not authorized to speak for the school.
She said the old desks and chairs simply fell apart over the years and had to be thrown out because they were beginning to pose a danger to the children.
"The regency administration claims it is still waiting for the legislative council's approval to allocate additional funds to provide schools with new furniture," she said.
According to data from the regency education agency, 732 schools in Lebak were renovated with money from last year's budget, but none of the schools have received new furniture. The renovation work only covered the buildings themselves.
Juanda, head of basic education at the education agency, acknowledged there was a problem with the chairs and desks at the schools.
"I don't understand why no funds were allocated for school equipment. The administration obviously didn't include a budget allocation for school equipment," he said.
Some of the schools, however, are still able to use their old furniture, Juanda said.
He agreed that having to sit on the floor was not the ideal way for students to learn.
Oke Oktariana, head of school facilities at the regency education agency, said in addition to a lack of basic furniture in classrooms, some schools did not even have enough classrooms for their students.
"An elementary school should have six classrooms, staff room and toilets, but in reality most of the 732 schools only have four classrooms and the Cigelung Ilir state elementary school only has two classrooms," Oke said.
The agency has asked the regency administration for additional funds to provide the schools the necessary equipment.
"We hope the proposal will be approved during the regional budget revision," Oke said, adding that Lebak Regent Mulyadi Jayabaya had agreed to supply furniture for the schools.
However, Oke said, the administration would not allocate additional funds this year to build more classrooms.
"We hope the administration will allocate money from the budget to build more classrooms because it's always better for students to study in proper rooms," he said.Wednesday, July 18,2007
No comments:
Post a Comment