REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has called for the rehabilitation of 91,634 damaged schools, consist of 61,697 elementary school buildings and 29,937 secondary school buildings. Speaking in a coordination meeting at the Ministry of Education and Culture here on Tuesday, SBY said the rehabilitation should be finished by 2014.
SBY reiterated the central government’s commitment to rehabilitating and renovating the heavily damaged buildings and class rooms. "The Ministry of Education and Culture has recorded that there are 61,697 damaged elementary school buildings and 29,937 secondary school buildings," he said.
But the president acknowledged that there was a lot of progress in the rehabilitation program this year and asked that it would be completed on time in 2014. "To finish the rehabilitation program on time in 2014, there must be a good coordination, synergy, and integrity among the central and regional governments at provincial, district, and municipal levels," SBY noted.
SBY instructed the rehabilitation program when he visited a number of damaged schools in West Java and Central Java during his Ramadan safari in 2011. While during the coordination meeting which was also attended by Vice President Boediono, Education and Cultural Minister Muhammad Nuh reported to the head of state about four main issues being faced by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The minister said the four issues were availability and affordable education, quality and relevance education, preservation and development of culture, and good governance of education. Relating to the preservation and the development of culture, SBY explained that culture has a wider meaning in building the younger generation to have superior and noble character.
"The development of culture and civilization will make the younger generation love their own homeland, understand their own history, and love the legacy of their predecessors," SBY said.
