45179_towardssaferschoolconstruction_0 2015 | Page 40

Country and hazard overview CASE STUDY A decentralised approach to school construction SECTION II: OVERVIEW Country: Indonesia Organisation: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Finance, World Bank Hazards: Earthquakes, floods, landslides, high winds, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis Summary: From 1999 Indonesia began decentralising almost all sectors of its government. By giving power to local authorities, it began to address the complex geography, cultural diversity and multiple hazards to which it is exposed. The Ministry of Education and Culture gave funding and decision-making power directly to school management and committees, even tasking them with managing school construction. Although the government is still struggling to provide an appropriate funding mechanism and enough technical support, many school communities have already constructed new school buildings or rehabilitated existing buildings in this decentralised political environment. THAI. CAM. Medan Pontianak Sorong Jakarta INDONESIA AUSTRALIA In Indonesia, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, droughts and landslides are prevalent. Since 2000, the country has experienced three earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 8.0. Tectonic movements also make 76 of Indonesia’s 150 volcanoes highly active and Indonesia’s history includes a series of disastrous eruptions that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and affected global weather patterns. Flooding is also a perennial issue. These diverse and prevalent hazards place about 75 percent of Indonesian schools at risk to natural hazards. School construction: From centralised to a community-based approach Around 60 percent of Indonesian schools were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s in a massive Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Program funded in full by the government. Understanding of the building codes and hazards was low and corruption was rampant, leading to poor site selection and construction quality. Nevertheless, access to basic education significantly improved and enrolment was boosted. Recognising the monumental challenge of building, operating, maintaining, repairing and retrofitting schools in various states of disrepair across thousands of islands, the government dece ntralised education management down to the community level in 1999. One year later, the central government established a block grant called the School Operational Fund with support from the World Bank, allowing school management and committees to directly receive and manage funding provided by the national government. To actually give power to the school management committee, the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) and the Ministry of Finance gave each community the responsibility to manage the School Operational Fund. As a block grant, the funding was flexible. It allowed the committee to spend money as they saw fit. It was also allocated based on the number of students – if enrolment increased, the funds to that school would increase. The school management committee was flexible and consisted of a principal, treasurer and small group of democratically elected community members. These community members typically came from the immediate area but could be drawn from surrounding neighbourhoods or elected for special purposes. This system, in conjunction with the block grant, was intended to allow the school committee to operate as the school implementing unit. Addressing school vulnerability to hazards After learning that 75 percent of 258,000 schools in Indonesia are in disaster risk areas, the government launched programs specifically to increase technical assistance for disaster risk-reduction education. They also adopted regulations to increase the hazard-resistance of school infrastructure. 31