Komdigi and UB Develop AI System for 'Sekolah Rakyat'
The government has begun developing governance and learning systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support the implementation of Sekolah Rakyat. This technology is the result of the Artificial Intelligence Talent Factory (AITF) programme by the Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDM) of the Ministry of Communication and Digital, involving students from the Faculty of Computer Science at Brawijaya University (Filkom UB). It is projected to be deployed in hundreds of Sekolah Rakyat during the 2026/2027 academic year.
Representing Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Robben Rico, stated that the use of AI will assist headmasters and teachers in designing curricula, managing learning, and creating pre-test and post-test questions. “In principle, the governance spans from upstream to downstream. This is one example of what we will develop. We have agreed to bring the application to 178 Sekolah Rakyat operating in the 2026/2027 academic year,” Robben said in a written statement on Wednesday (1/7/2026).
Robben made these remarks following his attendance at the AITF 2026 Demo Day & Graduation at the Algoritma Auditorium, Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java, on Tuesday (30/6). He explained that the development of the AI system will be accompanied by direct assistance for teachers and educators across the 17ability8 Sekolah Rakyat. The Ministry of Social Affairs is also inviting the developers from the AITF programme to participate in socialising the implementation to more than 5,000 teachers in Sekolah Rakyat throughout Indonesia.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Social Affairs will integrate the AI system produced by the AITF programme with the Learning Management System (LMS) in Sekolah Rakyat to support the achievement of Digital Quotient in learning. According to Robben, the Ministry of Social Affairs will ensure that the implementation of AI technology is distributed evenly across all Sekolah Rakyat. The programme’s execution will be supervised by the Ministry of Communication and Digital to ensure optimal implementation.
“We at the Ministry of Social Affairs, with the permission of the Minister of Social Affairs, will ensure that the implementation of this programme can be supported and covered with an appropriate budget. This is currently a prototype that must be realised in the form of an actual application,” he added.
The Ministry of Social Affairs aims for all innovations resulting from the development by AITF Komdigi - UB participants to be fully realised by the end of 2026.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Human Resources Development Agency of the Ministry of Communication and Digital, Bonifasius Wahyu Pudjianto, stated that the AITF programme is a collaboration between the Ministry of Communication and Digital and several universities in Indonesia. In addition to Brawijaya University, the programme also involves the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology and Gadjah Mada University. Each university has been given a different development focus according to the needs of solving field-based problems.
“For UB, the focus is on Sekolah Rakyat, which will be used by the Ministry of Social Affairs, and social assistance, which will be used by the East Java Provincial Government,” concluded Bonifasius.