Kemdiktisaintek optimises Satgas PPKPT to prevent violence on campus

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Education, Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek) is urging all higher education institutions to optimise the Satuan Tugas Pencegahan dan Penanganan Kekerasan di Perguruan Tinggi (Satgas PPKPT) to create safe campuses. Director of Learning and Students at Kemdiktisaintek, Beny Bandanadjaja, in a media briefing in Jakarta on Tuesday, stressed that the move is aimed at building learning spaces free from all forms of threat. Beny explained that the satgas, previously known as Satgas PPKS (Pencegahan dan Penanganan Kekerasan Seksual), has now transformed with the publication of Permendikbudristek Nomor 55 Tahun 2024. The latest regulation expands the scope of protection, not only focusing on acts of sexual violence, but also covering six other forms of violence, namely physical violence, psychological violence, bullying, discrimination, intolerance, as well as policies that contain violence. This expansion is deemed urgent because many in the academic community still do not understand the boundary between ordinary social interaction and psychological or verbal violence.

“This is just a joke, but why is it called violence? He says it’s a joke, but the person being joked with might not see it as a joke. Moreover, that has already entered bullying, for instance,” Beny said, mimicking the excuses often uttered by perpetrators of bullying.

Therefore, Kemdiktisaintek calls on universities to continue periodic education, starting from the Campus Life Introduction for New Students (PKKMB) and ongoing socialisation across all academic facilities.

Beny also emphasised that naming Satgas PPKPT places prevention as the most crucial foundation that must be undertaken by campus institutions to avoid escalation of problems. “So prevention first and handling. So the priority is prevention,” he said, confirming the government’s commitment to early mitigation.

In this effort, Kemdiktisaintek also monitors the effectiveness of the Satgas through spikes in reports. According to Beny, the rise in complaints at an early stage does not mean the campus has failed; rather it is an indicator of success in building victims’ trust in the Satgas’s protection. “First, when more people report, it doesn’t mean things are getting worse. Why? Because more people are actually trusting. Until a point when the prevention process can succeed, the reports will drop,” he said, referring to the Satgas performance metrics.

Based on data from Kemdiktisaintek, awareness among higher education institutions to form these Satgas shows a very positive and encouraging trend. To date, all 125 Perguruan Tinggi Negeri (PTN) in Indonesia have formed the Satgas. In the private sector (PTS), more than two thousand campuses have also established similar Satgas to protect all elements of the academic community.