Four months after the Sumatra floods, some students are still learning in tents

Four months after the floods in Sumatra, Tito Karnavian, head of the Task Force for Accelerating Rehabilitation and Reconstruction after Disasters in Sumatra, admitted that there are still students attending school in tents in areas affected by floods and landslides in Sumatra in November 2025.

He said those still learning in the emergency tents are because their schools were severely damaged as a result of the floods and landslides at the end of 2025.

‘Some of the severely damaged ones are still learning in tents. There are tents provided by BNPB and Kemendikdasmen, equipped with other equipment as well,’ Tito told reporters in Pidie Jaya Regency, Aceh, on Friday (6 March), citing his remarks, Saturday (8 March).

Tito explained that preliminary data show around 3,700 educational facilities were affected by the disaster and require further handling.

He said, in general, the teaching and learning process in the affected areas has largely resumed, although not yet entirely ideal.

‘But the priority is that education must continue. So those that are lightly and moderately damaged will be repaired while school activities continue,’ Tito said.

Tito also promised that thousands of educational facilities would be repaired soon. He explained that the government has classified the level of damage to schools from light, moderate, and heavy to buildings that have completely disappeared. Tito said repairs will be carried out gradually with a priority scale.

‘The classifications will be light, moderate, and heavy, and they will be repaired gradually with priority,’ he added.

He explained that general schools such as PAUD, TK, SD, SMP, and SMA are coordinated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Basic Education and Middle School Education (Kementerian Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah), while data collection for madrassahs and pesantren is conducted by Kemenag.

‘Indeed there are quite a lot affected, including PAUD, TK, SD, SMP, and SMA. This is being coordinated and we are compiling the data from local governments,’ he said.