Cabinet Secretary, Minister of Social Affairs Inspect Community School at Sentra Handayani Jakarta

Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf, Minister of Public Works Dody Hanggodo, and Vice Minister of Social Affairs Agus Jabo Priyono inspect the development of community school at Sentra Handayani, East Jakarta, Sunday (06/29). (Photo: Jay)

Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf, Minister of Public Works Dody Hanggodo, and Vice Minister of Social Affairs Agus Jabo Priyono inspected the development of community school at Sentra Handayani, East Jakarta, on Sunday (06/29). The inspection was aimed at ensuring the community school’s readiness to begin operation in the 2025/2026 academic year.

“I am grateful to receive the invitation from Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf to personally monitor the development of one of the community schools located in Sentra Handayani. We are conducting this inspection now to ensure the school is decent and ready to be used,” said the Cabinet Secretary.

Besides inspecting the school’s infrastructure, the Cabinet Secretary also had a dialogue with parents of the school’s future students. He emphasized that the community schools, initiated by President Prabowo Subianto, aim to increase equality in high-quality education for Indonesian children.

“With the presence of community schools, students from disadvantaged families will get the opportunities for high-quality education, which is also safer and more protected. Therefore, they will be able to serve as the driving force to improve the welfare of their family, society, and nation,” he said.

The community school program’s mission is to provide free access to high quality education and to break the cycle of poverty. The targeted students are those coming from the poor and the extremely poor families who fall under the categories of decile one and decile two categories based on the Single National Social and Economic Data (DTSEN), a comprehensive data system developed by Statistics Indonesia. The community school has the concept of a boarding school, providing education from elementary to high school levels.

Based on data from the Ministry of Social Affairs, in the initial stage, as many as 100 community schools in 100 locations will be launched in the 2025/2026 academic year with a total of 9,755 students. Then, according to President Prabowo’s directives, other 100 community schools in 100 new locations will also be launched, so that the total number of students studying in the community schools will reach more than 20 thousand. They will be supported by 2,180 teachers and 4,069 education personnel.  (LYS/HIM) (RD/TM)