Carried out through the Sekolah Sehat (Healthy School) campaign, the program aims to revitalize UKS in schools across Indonesia to promote health awareness in both students and faculty.

During the program’s launch at SDN Kapuk Muara 03 state elementary school in North Jakarta on Tuesday, Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim encouraged stakeholders to work together to promote healthiness, resilience and intelligence in Indonesian children.

“With the resumption of face-to-face learning, educational units need to pay attention to the health of children, as we believe that the main requirements for children to be able to learn optimally and especially independently are good health and adequate nutrition,” he said.

Nadiem explained that there were three priorities to be achieved through the Healthy School campaign, namely healthiness in terms of nutrition, physical health and immunization.

Nutrition, he shared, would be obtained by providing an understanding of balanced nutrition through the Isi Piringku program, which promotes the habit of eating and drinking with balanced nutrition, avoiding and/or minimizing the consumption of fast food and food or drinks that contain preservatives, are low in fiber and high in sugar, salt and fat and by promoting a healthy canteen.

In terms of physical health, the program encourages adopting several activities as habits, such as weekly physical fitness gymnastics (SKJ), stretching movements during class changes, optimizing jumping, running, throwing, leaping (4L) through folk games and traditional sports during break periods, optimizing intracurricular and extracurricular sports as well as encouraging walking daily.

For immunization, the program highlights three main objectives, namely mapping students’ immunization status, providing recommendations and implementing complete basic immunization for school age children.

The UKS Revitalization program and the Sekolah Sehat campaign involves five main parties, elementary schools throughout Indonesia, educators and education staff, UKS coaching and implementing teams, parents and the community.

The Sekolah Sehat movement will start from the elementary level, gradually progressing to include early childhood education (PAUD), junior high schools (SMP), senior high schools (SMA), vocational high schools (SMK) and their equivalents.

“Once again, I would like to invite the principals, educators, education staff, as well as parents, students and all members of society, including the government and the private sector to support the Sekolah Sehat campaign so that Indonesian children can learn independently in good health," Nadiem concluded.

To date, more than 12,450 schools throughout Indonesia have received contributions from several program partners, comprising Avina Sinergi Internasional, Danone Indonesia, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), KAO Indonesia, Maleo Group, Nestle, Nutrifood, Save the Children Indonesia, Twitter, Uni-Charm and Unilever.

“Thank you to the partners who are committed with the government in realizing Sekolah Sehat. I invite more partners to contribute to shaping exceptional human resources through the Sekolah Sehat campaign," Nadiem added.

Contributions from partners include the upskilling of human resources through educational activities and expert supervision, providing supporting infrastructure and equipment for various Sekolah Sehat campaign activities, organizing creative campaigns through mass media and social media, as well as the support of related competitions.

During the launch of Sekolah Sehat, the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and cooperation agreement with the program’s partners.

Nadiem also called for all stakeholders to play a larger role, such as schools to reactivate UKS activities, mapping what can be collaborated with parents or school committees, alongside external parties such as the private sector and local nongovernmental organizations.

“To potential partners, please support Sekolah Sehat through various forms of cooperation. To students and parents, remember that healthy eating and drinking as well as physical health must be carried out both at school, at home and in the surrounding environment," he said.

In line Nadiem’s sentiments, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized the importance of good health and a healthy school environment as the right of every Indonesian child.

He noted that the program’s objectives could be achieved by optimizing the role and function of the UKS coaching team at every school level, supported by the participation of students, teachers, parents, school committees and the community.

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