Government to Revitalise 1,600 Schools in NTB

Mataram (ANTARA) - The central government is confirmed to revitalise 1,600 schools across the entire Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) province this year.

Deputy Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (Wamendikdasmen) Fajar Riza Ul Haq stated that the number of schools to be revitalised this year has increased threefold compared to 2023.

“Last night, I met with the governor and discussed this (revitalisation). He hopes that the revitalisation assistance for NTB can increase. Alhamdulillah, the number has tripled,” he said after inspecting SMAK Kesuma in Mataram on Tuesday.

“This year, the number has been tripled to a value of more than Rp1 trillion. This is the central government’s commitment to supporting educational development in NTB,” Fajar added.

According to him, this school revitalisation assistance is a commitment from President Prabowo Subianto to ensure that Indonesian children, including those in NTB, can engage in the learning process in a more focused and improved manner, thereby enhancing student achievements.

“So, one of the aims of this school revitalisation assistance from the President is to ensure that Indonesian and NTB children can learn better,” he explained.

“The President said the number will be increased further by 60,000, so this year there will be 71,000 schools revitalised. This is to repair damaged schools, those affected by disasters, and those in 3T areas (frontier, underdeveloped, and outermost). Our focus is on improving schools in 3T regions,” he stated.

In addition to revitalising schools, the President will also add classrooms (learning groups). Each school will have a maximum of three additional rooms, with the hope that all existing classrooms can be equipped with Digital Interactive Boards (PID).

“This is the President’s commitment amid such a challenging global situation with the ongoing war in the Middle East. His commitment to the world of education remains undiminished,” he said.