Ulma Haryanto

Jakarta School May Sue After Contractor Nightmare

Jakarta’s Tebet Timur 20 Elementary School is considering suing contractors appointed by the city administration for negligence during renovation work that led to a fire, according to a number of the school’s teachers.

Tebet Timur 20 was one of 86 schools that were renovated courtesy of the city.

“We should maybe sue them,” Warseno, a teacher at the school, said. “We were lucky that the school’s guardian lives behind the school. He saw the fire and managed to extinguished it. He cleaned up the mess left behind and saved some things in the school’s media room from being destroyed,” he said.

The school’s teachers were appalled by the contractors’ gross “lack of safety sense,” Warseno said.

“All the books were burned in the media room. Our bookshelves, a 21-inch TV set, props used in the study of biology, around 50 small tables and chairs, and our blackboard [were destroyed]. Losses could amount to at least Rp 10 million ($1,080).”

Warseno was wearing a face mask, like the other teachers, to protect themselves from the dust as they took turns cleaning up the classrooms on Wednesday.

Alex, the school’s guardian, said that during the fire he could not afford to lose time as it would have meant losing more facilities.

“The welding started at 4 p.m. After evening prayers, I heard the workers’ screams. I think I used more than ten buckets of water to put out the fire,” Alex said.

Until today, cement residue could be found all around the school and dirt on the floor had not been swept up, he said.

The school principal, Supijati, said the fire had most likely occurred when one of the workers failed to secure his work area as he was “doing welding work on the ceiling.”

“They not only did not finish their work on time, they called myself and principals of the schools where work was being done, to sign a consent form on Dec. 15 claiming that they had indeed finished all the work. They had not even finished the paint job,” Supijati said.

She also said that her request to fix an “unsteady barrier on the second floor” was never worked on and she also found that one of the classroom’s ceilings was nearly going to “fall down.”

The school is one of four located in the same compound. All four schools, including elementary schools 17, 18 and 19, had work done to their buildings courtesy of the city.

As a result of the messy classrooms, students in all four schools went home early on Monday and Tuesday.

Rahman, the computer teacher at elementary school 19, said the contractors stole the power cables.

“I had to buy and install the cables myself,” Rahman said.

Jaenuri, the religious affairs teacher at the same school, said that two properly installed flush toilets were removed and replaced with squat toilets.

“The toilets were clogged. I guess they dumped the dirty cement into the toilets. Two wash basins are gone,” Jaenuri said.

“The wood used to frame our windows are a safety hazard. You can also see that they removed the floor tiles, and put it back again carelessly. Maybe they planned to change it with new ones, but then cancelled plans.”

Supijati said that she had reported the scandal to the Education Agency and they promised to call the contractors.

Sarjoko, head of the Education Agency’s building repairs unit, promised to look into renovation cases that were not handled well.

He refused to name the contractors for the projects, or mention the number of contractors hired and the criteria used during the tender process.

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