“The role of the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform must be carried out well to support the operations of Sekolah Rakyat to run sustainably and professionally,” she said, according to a statement released here on Wednesday.
She made the remarks during a ministerial meeting on Presidential Instruction Number 8 of 2025 in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The ministry’s support for the program includes institutional and human resource development through organizational strengthening and support for the recruitment of teaching and administrative staff for Sekolah Rakyat.
According to Widyantini, the tuition-free schools are a part of the institutional ecosystem of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education are collaborating to meet the need for teachers for the program.
“The role of the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform is not only facilitating the fulfillment of teachers but also overseeing the selection process,” Widyantini said.
This, she added, is essential to ensure the teachers have the required competencies.
The Sekolah Rakyat program, which targets children from poor and extremely poor families, aims to break the cycle of poverty in Indonesia, in line with Presidential Instruction Number 8 of 2025 on the Optimization of Poverty Alleviation and Extreme Poverty Eradication.
A total of 63 Sekolah Rakyat schools are set to begin operating on July 14, 2025. Meanwhile, another 37 schools are expected to open in late July or early August 2025.
In the next phase of the program, the government aims to add 100 more schools in the 2025–2026 academic year, as requested by President Prabowo Subianto.
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Translator: Fianda Sjofjan, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
Copyright © ANTARA 2025
