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Central Java races to find land for Sekolah Rakyat
The Central Java governor has said the province is tackling the challenge of locating 5-10 hectares of land for each school, as stipulated in a Social Affairs Ministry regulation on the government's Sekolah Rakyat initiative.
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Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf (center) and his deputy Agus Jabo Priyono (left) listen to Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya on March 8, 2025, during an inspection visit at a designated site for the Sekolah Rakyat (community school) initiative in Bekasi, West Java. (Antara/Asprilla Dwi Adha)
T
he Central Java administration is racing against the clock to secure land for President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship Sekolah Rakyat (community school) initiative, which aims to build a network of free boarding schools for students from underprivileged families and targets an opening date later this year.
"Preparing the land for building the schools is a challenging task, as the Social Affairs Ministry's regulations require them to be built on five to 10 hectares of land," Central Java Governor Ahmad Luthfi, a former Central Java Police chief, said on Wednesday.
He said the province’s regencies and municipalities were inventorying their land and assets to assess if any could be used for the Sekolah Rakyat program.
"Some regents and mayors have said to have set aside five hectares of land for the schools. We will verify their statements," Luthfi said, as quoted by kompas.id, adding that construction would begin this year with funding from the state budget.
Luthfi also expressed his hope that the initiative would contribute to reducing poverty in Central Java, which currently stands at 9.5 percent, while the national average is 8.5 percent.
The Social Affairs Ministry, which oversees the initiative, announced that it would temporarily repurpose four of its social service centers in Central Java for Sekolah Rakyat, pending the construction of new school buildings by the provincial administration.
"We have social service centers in Temanggung, Magelang, Pati and Surakarta that are ready to serve as Sekolah Rakyat this year. Ideally, we plan to have at least one Sekolah Rakyat in each of the 35 regencies and cities across Central Java," said Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf.
