JakartaGlobe-Oct 16
President Prabowo Subianto has launched the People’s School (Sekolah Rakyat) initiative aimed at breaking the cycle of extreme poverty in Indonesia through access to quality education. In the first year of his administration with Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, a total of 165 pilot schools have begun operations under the supervision of the Social Affairs Ministry. The People’s School is a free, boarding-based education program designed for children from poor and extremely poor families, with the main goal of breaking the cycle of poverty through quality education. The concept of the People’s School is that students live in dormitories, with all needs such as meals, uniforms, and accommodation fully covered by the government. Beneficiaries are selected based on data from the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) system. “The president’s mandate to the Social Affairs Ministry through this instruction is the establishment of People’s Schools. He believes the poverty cycle must be broken, and the way to do that is through education,” Agus said on Wednesday. According to Agus, President Prabowo emphasized that the government has a duty to ensure every child, regardless of their background, has access to education and opportunities to improve their lives. The People’s School program specifically targets children from families living in extreme poverty, offering them high-quality education through a boarding school system. Since its inception in February 2025, the Social Affairs Ministry has coordinated with other ministries, agencies, and local governments within the People’s School Task Force to open 165 pilot schools across Indonesia by September, surpassing President Prabowo’s initial target of 100 schools in the first year. The government aims to build 500 People’s Schools nationwide by 2029, ensuring that every regency and city across Indonesia has at least one such institution. Read more at:
