Kemendikdasmen: Distance Learning Programme Reaches Out-of-School Children, Especially in 3T Regions

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (Kemendikdasmen) has stated that the Distance Learning Programme (PJJ) has successfully transformed educational services from being school-centred to focusing on the needs of students, thereby reaching Out-of-School Children (ATS).

Ministry Secretary General Suharti said the implementation of PJJ is part of the ministry’s effort to reduce the number of ATS, which currently stands at 4 million children aged 7 to 18 years.

“We are moving from school-centred services to services centred on the needs of students. From simply opening new student admissions, to an active movement of finding, reaching, and returning ATS to educational services. It is in this context that Distance Learning becomes a very strategic programme,” Suharti said during a webinar titled “SPMB PJJ Movement to Return ATS to School through PJJ” in Jakarta on Friday.

Furthermore, she added, PJJ does not entirely deliver educational services online. She stated that the implementation of PJJ must combine offline and online methods to provide fair access and educational services to ATS, including those in frontier, outermost, and disadvantaged (3T) regions with limited digital infrastructure.

She therefore called on local governments and educational units to synergise and coordinate in supporting and supervising the implementation of the PJJ programme in their respective areas so that it can be precisely targeted.

“Our measure of success is not just how many children register, are registered, or we register, but how many children persist in learning,” Suharti said.