Ministry Of Education And Culture Reveals 57 Percent Of Schools In Indonesia Potentially Exposed To Many Disasters

Zona selamat sekolah di Temanggung Jawa Tengah. (Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) stated that more than 57 percent of schools in Indonesia are at risk of being exposed to more than one disaster threat.

"From the data we have, every time a disaster occurs, it also has an impact on our world of education," said Secretary of the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education Praptono in Jakarta, Tuesday, April 23, quoted by Antara.

In Indonesia alone, there are more than 500 thousand schools with more than 60 million students and more than 5 million educators and education personnel who carry out teaching and learning activities in more than 2.5 million classrooms.

Praptono explained that as many as 78 percent of education units or or 413 thousand education units are at risk of being exposed to earthquakes, 38 percent or 202 thousand schools are at risk of flooding, and 9 percent or 49 thousand schools are at risk of landslides.

Not only these disasters, disasters such as tsunamis also threaten 1.5 percent or 8 thousand educational units, volcanic eruptions risk threatening 1.5 percent or 8 thousand education units, and flash floods risk threatening 3.5 percent or 17 thousand education units.

Praptono even said that over the past 15 years, 15,356 schools were damaged by disasters and 49,997 educational units were affected by the smoke disaster due to forest and land fires, although they did not damage facilities and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the impact of disasters on education units includes many aspects ranging from damaged school infrastructure, cut transportation access, displaced school residents, damaged learning support equipment, and students and parents are afraid to return to school.

Therefore, Praptono said the government in the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) seeks to build a culture of being aware of disasters for school residents.

"Our focus is on how to build a culture of realizing disasters that require various collaborations with partners," he said.

Director of Preparedness of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Pangarso Suryo Utomo added that countermeasures in the context of educational units can be in the form of activities in the form of disaster risk analysis, school planning, as well as education, training, and rehearsals.

"It is hoped that schools will be able to recognize threats and predict before the disaster occurs," said Pangarso.