House Commission X Asks Ministry of Education to Explain TNI's Involvement in LPDP Orientation

Substantively, the plan to involve the TNI in the LPDP programme must be viewed with great caution,” said Lalu to reporters on Monday (4/5/2026). Lalu asked the Ministry of Education to provide a complete explanation to the public. He also touched on the main objective of the LPDP programme. “The Ministry of Education must explain to the public to avoid misconceptions. LPDP is fundamentally an education funding instrument oriented towards improving the quality of civilian human resources through scholarships, research, and knowledge development,” he stated. Lalu hopes there will be no overlap in roles in its implementation. He wants the proportion of TNI’s involvement in equipping LPDP students to be clear and measurable. “If the involvement of the TNI is intended in the context of strengthening certain capacities, for example discipline, leadership, or support in strategic fields such as defence, that can still be understood as long as the proportion is clear and does not shift LPDP’s main objective as an education fund manager. However, from a functional perspective, it needs to be ensured that there is no overlap in roles,” Lalu explained. “Nevertheless, the principle that must be maintained is that education policies remain oriented towards professionalism, inclusivity, and in accordance with the functions of each institution,” he added. It is known that LPDP involves the TNI in the Pre-Departure Preparation or PK activities for scholarship recipients. LPDP states that the pre-departure preparation activity is not new. “LPDP continuously organises Pre-Departure Preparation (PK) as part of the initial training for scholarship recipients before undertaking their studies. This PK activity has been carried out since the LPDP scholarship programme was launched and is an important part in ensuring the readiness of scholarship recipients, both academically and non-academically,” said the Head of the Legal and Communications Division of LPDP, M Lukmanul Hakim, when contacted on Monday (4/5/2026). He said that PK aims to equip scholarship recipients with character strengthening to national values. He hopes that the activity can enable the scholarship recipients or awardees to undertake their studies responsibly. “PK aims to equip scholarship recipients with character strengthening, national values, leadership, ethics, as well as mental and social readiness, so that awardees can undertake their study period optimally and responsibly as recipients of state scholarships,” he said.