The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsJakarta’s makeshift classrooms under sweltering threat
Often situated in semipermanent buildings with inadequate cooling facilities, informal learning spaces often suffer more than conventional classrooms during hot weather, hindering the learning process of poor children who need them the most.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
Extra lesson: Children in fourth to sixth grade do coloring activities with volunteers during the noon session at Rumah Belajar Senen in Senen, Central Jakarta, on July 18, 2026. (JP/Miriam Bahagijo)
E
very Saturday and Sunday, children from low-income families would flock to Rumah Belajar Senen (Senen Learning Center) in a small alley in Senen, Central Jakarta, to take complimentary school lessons.
Upon arriving at the location, students would be greeted by a sign on the wall that says “Welcome to Senen Learning Center” and four standing fans that help to circulate air. But the fans came with a tradeoff.
“The thing with fans is that the wind makes the children sleepy,” said Melvin Marolop Simanjuntak, this year’s deputy coordinator of Rumah Belajar Senen.
The fans were the only thing helping students in the 20-square-meter makeshift classroom cool off and follow the lesson.
But as the learning center mostly run by volunteers and rely on donations, teachers of Rumah Belajar Senen only have limited options to fight off the heat, such as opening the doors for better air circulation or put up a plastic tarpaulin to provide extra shade, although assembling it may become extra hassle for the volunteers.
“Sometimes we even let the kids study outside,” Melvin said.
While children from poor families in Jakarta can still go to the free public schools, they often lack access to compulsory classes to help them understand what they learned in school. They often go to informal learning spaces like Rumah Belajar Senen, which has been operating since 2005 and currently has 132 students from elementary to high school, to help with their study.
