Bahlil: LPDP Scholarships Should Also Reach Santri; Public-School Students Are Not Necessarily Superior

SUKABUMI, KOMPAS.com — The General Chairman of the Golkar Party, Bahlil Lahadalia, said that his party is pushing to ensure LPDP scholarship funds also flow to santri at pesantren. Bahlil said that children educated in public schools are not necessarily more brilliant than santri. He said this during a Ramadan safari at the Azzainiyyah Islamic boarding school, Sukabumi, West Java, on Sunday 8 March 2026. ‘Now, via the Golkar faction, via the General Secretary of the Golkar Party, we are really trying to ensure that the LPDP funds are not only felt by general education. But they must flow to santri as well. Because it is not certain that public schools with great facilities have higher quality than santri. Not necessarily,’ said Bahlil. He added that when someone attends a pesantren or an Inpres primary school that may lack various facilities, their quality is not necessarily inferior to students in public schools. ‘Our quality compared to those who study in the great schools with facilities, they are indeed more outstanding, not necessarily (superior) — my children all. We must prove that we are far better than those great schools,’ he explained. Bahlil stated that for Golkar, pesantren play a very important role in the path of Indonesia. ‘Even before independence, these pesantren already existed. So do not think that pesantren are merely places to foster character, but before the country existed we were still under colonial rule, pesantren already existed to build character that would become the leaders of the nation,’ said Bahlil. ‘My children all, therefore the government is now endeavouring to ensure the state is more present to assist the world of pesantren. One of the ways is through various programmes that also target santri, including nutritious food. This is part of the government’s ikhtiar under the leadership of Mr President Prabowo, not only for public schools but also directed so that santri in pesantren may benefit as well,’ he added.