Oversight of Sekolah Rakyat Head Teachers Needs Strengthening

The Chairman of the Formulation Team for the Sekolah Rakyat (People’s Schools) Programme, Mohammad Nuh, has highlighted the importance of supervising the role of head teachers and optimising budget utilisation in an evaluation of the programme’s implementation, which has been running for nearly one year. During an Evaluation Meeting on the Implementation of Sekolah Rakyat at the Ministry of Social Affairs office on Tuesday, 9 June 2026, Nuh stated that head teachers hold a strategic position as they are the ones dealing directly with various issues on the ground every day. He therefore urged the government to provide continuous mentoring, capacity building and performance monitoring for head teachers, rather than doing so only occasionally. ‘Monitoring performance, mentoring head teachers, developing head teachers and so on—these are not occasional activities but continuous, periodic ones,’ said Nuh. The former Minister of Education and Culture also cautioned that the success of Sekolah Rakyat cannot be measured solely by its outputs but must also be assessed by the impact felt by the community. According to him, programme evaluation needs to consider three aspects simultaneously: how the public views (seeing), feels (feeling) and reasons out (analysing) the programme’s benefits. ‘Even if it looks excellent and people are happy, if the reasoning cannot be accepted by certain groups, that becomes a note of concern,’ he said. In addition, Nuh emphasised the importance of budget efficiency. He urged all programme managers not to become complacent with government budget support and to ensure that every rupiah spent yields maximum benefit. He noted that savings from budget efficiencies could be diverted to other needs that are more urgent and have a direct impact on the community. Meanwhile, Ministry of Social Affairs Secretary-General Robben Rico reported that as of 9 June 2026, a total of 59 of the 166 pilot Sekolah Rakyat schools had received accreditation. A further 37 schools have undergone the visitation process and are awaiting assessment results, while 70 schools are still in the visitation scheduling stage with the National Accreditation Agency. Robben also revealed that the government is preparing the construction of permanent Sekolah Rakyat schools at 93 locations. To support the operations of these schools, the Ministry requires an additional 33 new head teachers beyond the 166 currently serving in the pilot schools. Furthermore, the government is opening recruitment for 5,127 education support staff, 3,053 subject and class teachers, and 331 religious teachers, who will later hold the status of Government Employees with Work Agreements (PPPK) within the Ministry of Social Affairs.