Australia Builds Fifty-Four Secondary Schools in South East Sulawesi

Australia is building fifty-four junior secondary schools in South East Sulawesi as part of a program to build or upgrade 2000 Indonesian junior secondary schools.

Twenty of these schools have been completed in time for the start of the 2007 school year, with another thirty- four schools targeted for completion before the beginning of the 2008 school year.

Minister for National Education Bambang Sudibyo attended a ceremony today in Kendari, South East Sulawesi, to mark the opening of these twenty schools.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said the Australia Indonesia Partnership was funding the construction or expansion of schools in 20 Indonesian provinces in a program worth Rp2.5 trillion. More than 1200 schools should be completed by June 2008.

The construction program will create more than 330,000 new junior secondary school places to benefit children from poor and remote areas.

“We recognise this as a priority in a country where nearly two million children aged 13 to 15 are not in school,” Mr Farmer said.

Local people are building the schools using locally supplied materials. The school sites have been selected based on an assessment of unmet demand, enrolment rates and community involvement.

Information for media:
Mia Salim (Senior Public Affairs Officer, AusAID) – 0812 107 0237