Jakarta. 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.

Deputy Social Affairs Minister Agus Jabo said the program was implemented under Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 8 of 2025 on the Optimization of Poverty Alleviation and Eradication of Extreme Poverty.

“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 in Jakarta 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.

“He said if a father is a scavenger, his child should not have to be one too. If a father is a pedicab driver, his child should not have to follow the same path. It’s the state’s responsibility to reach these children,” he said.

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.

However, Agus noted that the existing schools are still temporary, utilizing and revitalizing existing government-owned facilities from the Social Affairs Ministry, local administrations, and other ministries.

The next stage, he said, involves the construction of permanent schools on 8.2 hectares of land each, beginning in November 2025. These permanent facilities are expected to be operational by July 2026, with students from the pilot schools moving to the new campuses.

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.