Schools in Mimika interior closed for months

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Academic activity at schools in Mimika district`s interior have been at a standstill for the past few months because their teachers have become stuck in Timika city, one of the teachers said.

The principal of Jila district`s junior high school (SMP), Natalis Nimbitkendik, said he and other teachers at his school were still in Timika because they had no transportation to return to Jila.

"We can not return to Jila, because there is no transportation to get there," he said.
He said the teachers usually travel to Jila from Timika by a PT Freeport Indonesia helicopter hired by the Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Foundation (LPMAK).

Several villages in Jila district, such as Hoeya, Bela, Alama, Geselema and others are located 3,000 meters above sea level, and can only be reached by air transportation.

But since the shooting incidents in the concession area of gold and copper mining company PT Freeport, the company`s helicopters no longer fly to Jila district nor to Keakwa in Central East Mimika district.

Cantius Emereyauw, a Kamoro tribal community figure, said for the past three months YPPK`s Bona Ventura elementary school had totally stopped operating. The whereabouts of its teachers were also unknown.

"There has been no schooling activity in the past three months, because the teachers are not at their stations," he said.

He said he was concerned about the pupils` future now that their schooling had been disrupted.

Elementary schools in Mimika which were run by the Catholic Education and School Foundation (YPKK) of Timika were also only operating now and then with casual teachers.

Meanwhile, the teachers with civil servant status were not around, and spending their time doing something else in the city, he said. Ironically, these teachers continued to receive their full salaries and allowances from the state.

The School Operational Assistance (BOS) funds the schools were receiving from the central or local governments were also being embezzled by the school principals with impunity.

"We urge Mimika`s local government through its relevant apparatus to pay serious attention to this situation," Cantius said.

Source : ANTARA News | Timika | Papua