UNICEF’s permanent schools building project in Aceh and North Sumatra

Background

UNICEF has committed itself to build more than 300 new permanent, earthquake-resistant and child- friendly schools in the seven tsunami and earthquake-affected districts of Aceh and Nias island, off North Sumatra province. To date more than 230 school sites have been selected in collaboration with local communities, district and provincial level government. 428 sites were surveyed by the UNICEF construction team. This project is part of a $90 million investment in Aceh’s and North Sumatra’s education system and is expected to take at least three years to complete. The project has already started with construction ongoing at a site in Banda Aceh, where two schools, Muhammadiyah 1 & 2 are being built side by side. UNICEF’s sister organisation, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), is to build and refurbish the schools on its behalf.

The devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit the province of Aceh and North Sumatra on 26 December 2004, left around 200,000 people dead or missing, and more than half-a-million people homeless. A large number of schools were also destroyed or severely damaged. In the province of Aceh alone, according to its provincial Department of Education (dated May 30, 2005), the destruction included 1,147 schools completely destroyed or severely damaged. These included: 110 kindergartens, 725 elementary schools and 272 junior and senior high schools. Among the destroyed/damaged schools, 166 schools (all levels of education) were in Banda Aceh district, and 128 schools were in Aceh Besar district. When focusing on primary schools, 80 out of 131 (61%) were destroyed/damaged in Banda Aceh, and 75 out of 252 (29%) were destroyed/damaged in Aceh Besar. Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh and Nias, UNICEF started to distribute tent schools to ensure that children could continue their schooling as soon as possible. To date, 1,013 school tents have been distributed benefiting 66,760 children. As school tents wear out, and the situation becomes evident that the recovery will take time because of the scale of the disaster, a transitional strategy was required. In late May 2005, UNICEF contracted the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to build 200 semi permanent schools in five districts of Aceh for the sum of around $2 million. So far more than 150 semi permanent schools have been completed. In Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar districts alone, 50 semi permanent schools were built, providing 4,200 children with adequate learning spaces while the permanent schools are being reconstructed. Late 2005 UNICEF decided to build an extra 43 semi permanent schools in Nias, 10 are already as of today under construction. UNICEF was the first organization to build semi permanent schools in Aceh. UNICEF, as the lead UN organization in the education sector of Aceh and Nias, advocated that temporary and semi permanent learning spaces were important, and the government and the private sector followed suit.

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These semi permanent schools will provide an important ‘stop-gap’ until the permanent schools are up and running.

Strategies

UNICEF is building the permanent schools at locations decided jointly between the local communities, parents, teachers, and local government education officials. Once a list of schools for reconstruction is submitted by the District Department of Education, each site is visited and assessed. Meetings are held with the communities, school principals, school committees, teachers and students. UNICEF helps communities to identify a piece of land where schools can be built, and to obtain legal documents to secure its status for the future. It requires an enormous amount of effort and time; however, it has been a critical process for both communities as well as for UNICEF, as we rebuild communities together. UNICEF is also leading by example in that it is ‘building back better’ by providing new permanent schools that are built to higher standards than those that existed before. The defining quality is they will be ‘child-friendly’. By that UNICEF means each school will have safe drinking water, separate toilets for boys and girls and access for the disabled, among other facilities. The basic schools’ design incorporates: Six classrooms, toilets with wash basins, a teachers’ office, and landscaped outdoor play area. It will also include internal sliding walls between classrooms enabling teachers and the community to form a multi-purpose school hall or assembly room. The community is invited to choose from the following facilities to add to this basic design: A library or laboratory. UNICEF took the decision to build semi permanent schools close to where it will build the permanent ones. This means the semi permanent schools act as a litmus test before investing large amounts of donors’ money in the permanent schools. The demand will be clearly established for each location, it means schools will be built where they are most needed. Making sure there is a geographical spread of the schools is important. No child’s educational opportunities should be harmed simply because he or she lives in a remote area of the tsunami- affected districts. For UNICEF equity is important. That’s why UNICEF is building schools across the provinces in the accessible and less accessible districts. (Please see the map of permanent schools location at the end of the document )

CHALLENGES

M uch of Aceh’s road network has yet to be rebuilt and some places are difficult to reach by road. Given large quantities of building materials will be transported for this programme this presents a large problem in many locations, particularly those further away from Banda Aceh. Inflation in Indonesia, and certainly in Aceh, has increased over the past few months. A cut in the national fuel subsidy in the country meant that overnight fuel prices increased by more than 120%.

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This stretches budgets. Given the considerable amount of construction work that has already started in the province and which has yet to begin, it is creating a marked surge of demand relative to supply in the building industry. UNICEF is countering this by: - Surveying the market to make sure we’re getting the best deals. - M aximising scales of efficiency in order to achieve the best possible prices for building the schools. - Looking closely at prices paid by other organisations which are building schools to similar high standards. - Looking for alternative building materials which offer the same if not better qualities but are competitively priced. Over the longer term it will be important to ensure the schools are properly managed and maintained by the local communities. New skills and knowledge will need to be passed on to develop the necessary management capabilities. CASE SAMPLE SCHOOL:

A typical UNICEF school has six classrooms – one classroom for each grade – with adequate ventilation; a teachers’ office, and a landscaped outdoor area to give the students a safe place to play. The school also features separate toilets and sinks for boys and girls. In addition, the building includes internal sliding walls between classrooms enabling teachers and the community to form a multi-purpose hall or assembly room. To ensure that handicapped students can have easy access, ramps and wider doors are installed, so that no child is excluded from his or her education. The community can choose among the following features, where appropriate: Features of the school include: • One or Two storey building • Six or more classrooms, each measuring 8m x 7m • Enclosed outdoor play area • System for harvesting rainwater • Two teachers’ lounges, plus a headteacher’s office • A laboratory or a library • M ulti-purpose hall when possible • Separate toilets for boys and girls complete with basins for washing hands • Four ramps for students with disability • Earthquake resistant design • Parking space for teachers’ motorcycles and visitors’ vehicles • The school boundary will be marked by a low fence. • Designs that factor in a degree of earthquake resistance • All the construction timber is from reputable and renewable sources. • Building materials are procured where possible locally. • Homeless people will be offered work as labourers on the building sites in order to support local temporary employment, on-the-job training and ownership in the process.

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Architectural drawings

One sample of typical UNICEF school construction

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Cost of a typi cal UNIC EF school construction

The cost over the next three years for a typical child-friendly and earthquake-resistant school was estimated at 196,000 USD, a figure reached together with our partner organization UNOPS. What follows is a breakdown of the cost of a typical permanent school: This costing is indicative. Some schools will have varying facilities and, of course, varying costs. The facilities are specified after consultation with the community. We should also be aware of the inflationary pressures in Aceh. This means costs are almost certain to rise over the next three years.

Breakdown of Cost according to 3 year Average

1 Preparatory work Land clearing 3742.007 Measurement 427.4138 1596.59 Sub-total 1 5766.011 2 Structural Work Class room 78232.77 teachers Office/ Administration Room 5588.058 Library 8382.087 Principle's Office 5588.058 Meeting Hall 20955.21 Guard House 16764.16 Student latrine 814.9236 Principal's/ teacher's latrine 1222.385 Septic Tank 1596.59 sub-total 2 139144.3 3 Infrastructure work 4191.038 School fence 14968 2660.975 Tunnel 1995.728 Water/Sewerage 6985.067 School sidewalk 7484.002 School garden 8315.56 4989.339 Subtotal 3 51589.72

To ta l 196500

Note: 1.The cost may vary according to site situation 2. the cost may vary according to Type of construction, like Timber construction 3. the cost may also vary according to actual inflation.

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UNICEF’s first 156 permanent schools’ locations

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