JPPI: Schools and Universities Fail to Become Safe Spaces

The Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) has spotlighted allegations of sexual harassment within a student chat group at the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Law. JPPI Coordinator Ubaid Matraji stated that the case serves as a serious alarm in higher education. The incident also reveals systematic failures in building a safe and integrity-driven academic culture. “This is a serious failure,” he said in an official statement on Tuesday, 14 January 2026. According to him, violence in education is no longer isolated cases but a systemic pattern. The perpetrators, he noted, often come from within the educational institutions themselves. “This shows that schools and universities have failed to become safe spaces,” he said. Based on JPPI’s monitoring from January to March 2026, there were 233 recorded cases of violence in educational environments. Analysis of these figures indicates that sexual violence is a systemic phenomenon occurring repeatedly and widespread. “Not merely sporadic incidents,” he stated. The distribution of cases shows violence occurring in various settings, including schools at 71%, higher education at 11%, pesantren at 9%, non-formal education units at 6%, and madrasahs at 3%. According to him, the dominance of school levels at 71% indicates that basic and secondary education has become the epicentre of violence. Meanwhile, when combined, religious-based education—pesantren and madrasahs—contributes 12%. “This shows that no educational ecosystem is truly safe from violence,” Ubaid said. The most common types of violence found were sexual violence at 46%, physical violence at 34%, bullying at 19%, policies containing violence at 6%, and psychological violence at 2%. For him, the high number of sexual violence cases signifies a serious failure in protecting students from the most basic crimes against the body and human dignity. When combined, he said, the three main types of violence—sexual, physical, and bullying—account for around 89% of all cases. Based on the perpetrators’ identities, they include educational and support staff at 33%, students at 30%, adults at 24%, and others at 13%. According to him, this data presents a deeply concerning fact. The largest group of perpetrators comes from within the education system itself. “If combined—teachers, lecturers, support staff, and students—more than 63% of perpetrators originate from the internal environment of educational institutions,” he said. Ubaid stated that violence has flourished in educational institutions. Spaces that should be the safest for learning, character building, and instilling humanistic values.