Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto defended his administration’s ambitious education agenda on Monday, responding to critics who have questioned the feasibility of several major government programs.

Speaking at the national rollout of digital interactive boards, or smartboards, at SMPN 4 Bekasi Junior High School, Prabowo said the government was accelerating plans to expand the technology to schools nationwide starting next year.

According to a report from the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry, around 288,000 smartboards are expected to be delivered to schools by December 2025. Prabowo said that once that target is met, the government aims for a significantly larger push in 2026.

“Next year our target is to add three more panels, meaning three additional classrooms, for every school in Indonesia. That means we will install, God willing, around 1 million panels,” Prabowo said.

He added that he anticipated skepticism from some quarters, mentioning past criticism directed at his administration’s programs.

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“There will always be so-called smart people saying, ‘Can you really do that? Impossible. Another crazy Prabowo program,’” he remarked.

Despite the criticism, Prabowo insisted the government remains committed to closing education gaps across the archipelago. The smartboard initiative, he said, is designed to ensure equal access to digital learning tools for students in both urban centers and remote communities.

The president also highlighted what he called a major milestone in the government’s free nutritious meals program (MBG), which he acknowledged had faced persistent scrutiny during its early rollout. Prabowo said the program now reaches about 44 million beneficiaries, calling it one of the fastest expansions of its kind globally.

He compared the achievement with Brazil, which took 11 years to reach 40 million recipients.
“We haven’t even reached 12 months and we’re already at 44 million,” he said. “But we are not satisfied, because our target is 82.9 million beneficiaries by the end of 2025.”

Prabowo stressed that both the MBG program and the smartboard expansion share a common goal: reducing inequality and providing uniform access to essential public services. He said the government is determined to ensure that schools in Indonesia’s most remote areas receive the same digital facilities as those in major cities.

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