TEMPO.CO, Bandung - Ende Mutaqin, head of the Bandung Education Office Head for Kindergarten and Elementary School, said that 109,000 elementary students in the area have no classrooms to study. Bandung's 276 public elementary schools can only accommodate 150,000 students.

"There are 259,000 elementary students in Bandung now, while there are only 4,000 classrooms," Ende said on Wednesday, November 13.

Lack of classrooms is not the only problem faced by the Bandung Education Office. The available classrooms are also overcrowded. According to the national education standard set by the Education and Culture Ministry, ideally each classroom should sit 28 to 36 students per shift. While in several schools in Bandung, a classroom has to accommodate 40 school kids; divided into two shifts: morning and afternoon.

"Ideally each classroom should only have one shift, which is in the morning. But because there are too many registered students, there's nothing we can do. We had to make it into two shifts, because the children need to go to school," Ende said.

Ende said that the situation was not caused by the Education Office's lack of attention to the number of classrooms. To date, he said, there are ongoing constructions of classrooms and other school infrastructure. However, the rapidly increasing number of students makes it hard for the Education Office to keep up.

PERSIANA GALIH