Damaged For Decades, 729 Middle School Rooms In Cianjur Queue Wait For Improvement Due To Budget Minimum Regency Government

The classroom at SMP 3 Agrabinta, Agrabinta District, Cianjur Regency, West Java, collapsed due to age, so dozens of students were forced to study alternately. (ANTARA/Ahmad Fikri).

CIANJUR - The Department of Youth and Sports Education (Disdikpora) of Cianjur Regency, West Java, noted that 729 junior high school classrooms in Cianjur were in a damaged condition and needed improvement. Various efforts have been made to reduce the number of damaged classes in early 2024. Head of the Cianjur Disdikpora Middle School Division Helmi Halimudin said the lack of budget from the Cianjur Regional Budget every year made the local government take decades to repair damaged classrooms. "Until the end of this year, only a few schools have received a priority scale for improvement so that the teaching and learning process is not disrupted, including the collapsed school building in Takokak District some time ago, will receive a priority scale at the end of the year," he said in Cianjur, quoted from Antara, Friday, October 6. Until now, the available budget for the repair of damaged schools is very limited, so it seeks additional budgets from various parties, from provinces to the center, such as Hhusus allocation funds, general allocation funds, and grant funds. This is because, said Helmi, to repair damaged schools, it will cost quite a lot, while the allocation of local government funds is limited if it relies on local government funds, it will take up to 20 years to complete the repair. "For this year, the general allocation funds and grant funds can only repair 40 classrooms in several schools that are included in the priority scale, including special allocation funds for only a few schools according to central government regulations," he said. Meanwhile, two classrooms at SMPN 3 Agrabinta in Agrabinta District, collapsed due to age, the school hopes to receive repair assistance soon because the teaching and learning process for dozens of students is disrupted, because it does not have a classroom. The head of SMPN 3 Agrabinta Asep Saepudin said the collapsed classroom had previously been repaired a few years ago, but eventually collapsed due to age consumption and dozens of students were forced to study in turn.

"Because it has been a long time since the rehabilitation has been carried out, the classroom collapsed, there were no casualties, because of the collapse when the students came home. We hope that it will be rebuilt soon, because around 60 students are forced to study alternately every day," he said.