Tens of Thousands Public Schools Not Yet Powered by Electricity

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Anies Baswedan, Minister of Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education, said that a total of 17,520 public schools in Indonesia currently have no electricity running. The figure, Anies added, accounted for 8.5 percent of the total number public schools under the ministry’s supervision.

“We reviewed data about electricity [in public schools], and we found many schools without any electricity installation,” Anies said at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Friday, March 20, 2015.

Anies explained that most of the schools were located in remote areas, with Papua as the area with the lowest electrification ratio for schools at 55 percent, followed by West Sulawesi with 63 percent, West Papua with 66 percent, East Nusa Tenggara with 70 percent, and West Kalimantan with 71 percent.

Anies reported that Central Java achieved the highest electrification ratio for public schools at 97 percent. Bangka Belitung, Yogyakarta and West Java had 96 percent of their schools powered with electricity, and Jakarta managed to power 92 percent of its public schools with electricity.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said revealed that a team will meet intensively starting from next week to discuss the issue with electricity in public schools.

ALI HIDAYAT