Students of state elementary school SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 travel to school on the Anugrah wooden boat on the Citarum River, Muara Gembong district, Bekasi regency, Wednesday (23/8). The boat belongs to SDN Pantai Bahagia 02. Each student pays Rp 4,000 per day to travel on the boat.
Every day at 5:30 a.m., wearing her red and white school uniform, Dian Ramadhani, 10, stands on a bamboo pier in front of her house. Not long after that a motorized wooden boat comes, picking up the third grader of state elementary school SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 to take her to school.
Dian\'s house is on the outer perimeter of Muara Bendera, Kampung Pesisir, Muara Gembong district, Bekasi regency, West Java, at the estuary of the Citarum River. The wooden house on stilts is located 5 kilometers from SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 and is not accessible by land. After picking up Dian, the boat goes to another small pier along the Citarum River. Students in neat uniforms wait on the pier, ready to go to school.
On Wednesday (23/8) morning, about 80 students of SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 went to school on board the wooden boat. Some of them sat on the roof of the boat. Laughter and actions of the children broke the silence. Some rubbed their eyes in sleepiness while others did their homework.
The boat named Anugrah is the only vessel that takes the students of SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 to school. Over the last seven years, the Anugrah has picked up children in Muara Bendera who study at the school. "If the boat breaks down, I don\'t go to school," Dian said.
Each student who is picked up by Anugrah pays Rp 4,000 per day. The boat transports 80 to 90 students per day. The school does not charge poor students or orphans tuition.
For Dian, who lives the farthest from school, Anugrah is a blessing that helps children realize their dreams. With a low fare, the wooden boat has become a solution to getting to school.
The same thing is experienced by Aulia, 9, a second grader whose house is closer to the school. She is happy to go to school by the Anugrah. "I have many friends there," said Aulia. She is forced to go by foot or ordinary boat if the Anugrah breaks down.
The wooden boat with a capacity of 100 people is frequently forced to transport 150 students during the rainy season. Any more than that would be dangerous.
Initiative of school
SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 principal Abdul Muin, 53, explained that the school had taken the initiative to use the Anugrah wooden boat with a 24-horsepower engine as a vehicle to transport students on the considerations of access, safety and certainty of school attendance. Parents on the school committee agreed to the idea.
"Access to the school from the students\' houses is mostly not possible by land. Aside from that, punctuality in arriving at school is guaranteed because they have to follow the schedule of the boat," he said.
The wooden boat was made in 2010 at a cost of Rp 150 million, which was financed by a loan from teachers\' cooperatives throughout Muara Gembong district. The loan is paid off in monthly installments by the school. The collateral was the salaries of the principal and teachers.
Installment payments are taken from the Rp 4,000 each student pays per day. If in one day the Anugrah transport 80 students, gross revenue reaches Rp 320,000 per day. After the Rp 150,000 wages of two boat workers and the Rp 70,000 cost of diesel fuel are deducted, net revenue is Rp 100,000. "If per day it was Rp 100,000, monthly revenue would reach, say Rp 2.5 million, and the loan could have been fully repaid by 2015," Abdul said.
The school intentionally did not collect money from students\' parents in relation to the cost of the boat. Many parents are poor. After the cost of the boat was covered, the net revenue from the Anugrah was used to pay for repairing the gates of the school and to buy desks and chairs.
Before acquiring the boat, the school got a grant in the form of a boat from a resident of Muara Gembong early in 2001. The boat, which used to be operated to transport goods from Cilincing, North Jakarta, to Muara Gembong, later crashed into a seawall in Cilincing.
"When we operated the old boat, the school could not save money because the boat frequently broke down. When we made the Anugrah boat, we started from scratch," Abdul said.
Nana, 32, one of the boat workers, said that when the boat broke down, a repairman for a fisherman in Muara Bendera was asked to repair it. During the seven years of operating the Anugrah, it has broken down only twice.
Before having its own boat, Abdul said, many students went to school on foot or were accompanied by their parents on small boats. It made them frequently late to school.
Activities at school, which start at 7 a.m., were delayed until 8 a.m. "If the teachers are too strict, the students could possibly drop out of school," Abdul said. This school has not received any assistance from the Bekasi administration since the school has had its own boat. At 10:30 a.m. first and second graders burst out of the classrooms. The Anugrah takes the students home. At 12:30 p.m., it is the turn of third to six graders to go home.
