Jambi – Up to 3,464 out of about 16,499 elementary school classrooms throughout Jambi are so badly damaged they are unable to be used, an official said.

"The damage has disrupted classes as most of them cannot be used any longer," Hendri Mashyur, a member of the Jambi Legislative Council, said, adding that classrooms in 4,289 other schools were slightly damaged "This is an example of neglect," he said.

The damaged classrooms has resulted in 14,269 out of 443,961 elementary school students failing to pass the required test to go on to the next grade in the 2004/2005 school year, he said. By comparison the number of students who failed the end of year tests in 2003/2004 reached only 9,681, he said.

Hendri said that this reflected the poor condition of education in Jambi, which was also worsened by the fact that 6,000 out of a total of 6,485 teachers in the province were not qualified to teach.