Free Boarding Schools for the People Will Be Opened, What Will the Education Concept Be Like?

Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf has been visiting various regions to prepare community schools targeted to operate in the 2025/2026 academic year. Although only three months remain, the government is optimistic about being able to open schools for children from underprivileged families soon. These schools will provide dormitories, books, school supplies, as well as free meals and drinks.

Saifullah began presenting the concept of community schools to regional leaders. On Friday (11/4/2025), he traveled to Medan, North Sumatra, to explain the program to the governor, regents, and mayors across North Sumatra.

"This community school is purely the idea of President Prabowo Subianto. This school provides broad access for the poor and those in extreme poverty to free education services," said Saifullah.

Saifullah stated that the establishment of community schools is part of efforts to alleviate poverty. Therefore, the operation of community schools is carried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

There are two schemes for the establishment of community schools. First, the government will revitalize existing buildings, particularly government-owned buildings that have classrooms and dormitories or lodging rooms.

The second scheme involves the central government constructing new buildings on a 5-10 hectare plot of land prepared by the local government. The government will build classrooms, dormitories, and housing for teachers.

The government targets the construction of 200 public schools with new buildings, 100 of which will be built by the government and the other 100 by private entities. Each school will have a capacity of 1,000 students.

This year, the Ministry of Social Affairs is targeting the opening of 53 public schools spread across several regions in Indonesia with the first scheme. In North Sumatra, for example, there are four public schools that will be opened with the scheme.

The four public schools utilize the North Sumatra State Islamic University (UIN) Building in Tebing Tinggi City, the North Sumatra Provincial Government Human Resources Development Agency Building in Medan, as well as two buildings owned by the Ministry of Social Affairs, namely the Medan Happiness Center and the Deli Serdang Insyaf Center.

This public school will be opened for elementary, junior high, and high school levels. The criteria for public school students are students from families in decile 1 and decile 2 based on the national socio-economic single data (DTSEN) integrated with the basic education data (dapodik).

Decile 1 is the lowest 10 percent of households in terms of welfare nationally, while decile 2 is the lowest 11–20 percent. They are the extreme poor, poor, and vulnerable poor groups. Elementary schools also apply age requirements, namely 7-9 years for elementary school, 13-15 years for junior high school, and 16-21 years for high school.

Public schools are also intended for children who have dropped out of school or are at risk of dropping out of school, especially those who are in the final grade of school, namely grade VI of elementary school and grade IX of junior high school.

Saifullah said that students in public schools will receive formal education according to the national curriculum plus character education such as leadership, skills (vocational), nationalism, and religion.

This school also does not apply regular registration and graduation times like public schools. Students can register according to their readiness and condition. Students can also enter public schools only to continue or deepen certain competencies or skills.

Students can also drop out or graduate after completing certain learning outcomes, not just based on regular completion times.

People's schools use a mastery learning approach or complete learning with an orientation towards fulfilling in-depth learning services in order to provide mindful, meaningful, and joyful learning.

Students in public schools will be taught by teachers with civil servant status who are assigned, government employee teachers with work agreements (PPPK), and special teacher selection for public schools who are graduates of teacher professional education (PPG).

Elementary school teachers must have a teacher certification or have passed PPG. They will not only teach one subject, but can teach several subjects, including character education.

The acceptance of teachers and students in public schools is guided by Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 8 of 2025 concerning Optimization of Extreme Poverty Eradication. The Inpres divides the tasks of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, and local governments.

Saifullah said that public schools are also part of poverty alleviation. Through education, Saifullah hopes that poor families can escape the poverty line. In the last 10 years, he said, the poverty rate has only decreased by less than 2 percent.

In 2014, the national poverty rate reached 11.25 percent and could only drop to 9.36 percent in 2023. This stagnation in poverty alleviation, said Saifullah, is also reflected in the list of recipients of the Family Hope Program (PKH) which has barely changed for more than 10 years.

"The President requested that the poverty rate be reduced to below 5 percent by 2029 and extreme poverty to 0 percent by 2026," said Saifullah.

This people's school is purely the idea of President Prabowo Subianto. This school opens wide access for poor and extremely poor people to free education services.

Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Abdul Mu’ti said that his party has set a number of criteria for teachers for public schools through a special teacher selection path. Public school teachers may not be bound as state civil servants and will be placed specifically in public schools.

In terms of qualifications, prospective public school teachers must have a teacher certification or have passed PPG. "Public school teachers must be full-time, this must be conveyed at the beginning so that it can be understood," said Mu'ti in Jakarta, (Kompas.id 9/4/2025).

North Sumatra Governor Bobby Nasution stated that he fully supports the people's school program. He said that there are already 21 districts/cities in North Sumatra that have proposed the construction of people's schools. However, this year the implementation has only been in four locations due to land constraints.

"We hope that this public school can break the chain of poverty in North Sumatra. With this program, children from poor families can get a better education," said Bobby.

The North Sumatra Provincial Government, said Bobby, has several assets equipped with dormitories, residences, and classrooms. The assets are located in Medan City. Other assets that have the potential to be used for public schools belong to the district/city.

Tebing Tinggi Mayor Iman Irdian Saragih said the UIN Sumut building has a land area of 2.3 hectares. The Tebing Tinggi City Government, said Irdian, will conduct land acquisition to expand the land so that it can accommodate up to 1,000 students

Tebing Tinggi City Government will free up land so that the area has a minimum area of six hectares. "We support the people's school program as part of poverty alleviation," said Irdian.