Prabowo Acts Swiftly to Save Over 3 Million Out-of-School Indonesian Children

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - President Prabowo Subianto has signed Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 3 of 2026 on the Prevention and Handling of Out-of-School Children. The regulation was promulgated on 26 January 2026.

The regulation aims to enable educational units to identify and prevent children at risk of dropping out from doing so.

In addition, ministries/institutions and local governments from village to provincial levels will be able to carry out prevention and handling of out-of-school children comprehensively, in a structured and integrated manner in fulfilling minimum service standards.

The regulation also hopes that capable members of the public can participate actively in supporting the prevention and handling of out-of-school children.

Article 3 explains that prevention and handling of out-of-school children is carried out for:

1. Children in special regions;

2. Child workers;

3. Children with disabilities;

4. Street children;

5. Neglected children;

6. Children who are victims of violence;

7. Children in conflict with the law and supervised children;

8. Children who are victims of child marriage;

9. Children with other vulnerable conditions.

Implementation at the central and regional levels will be carried out by central coordination teams and regional coordination teams. These teams function to strengthen coordination and synchronisation of planning, budgeting, implementation, as well as control and evaluation of the prevention and handling of out-of-school children.

The teams will be chaired by the minister in charge of government affairs in the field of national development planning or the head of a non-ministerial government institution in charge of government duties in the field of national development planning.

Prevention of out-of-school children is carried out through:

1. Strengthening education services;

2. Strengthening educational units;

3. Strengthening education.

In terms of public participation in the prevention and handling of out-of-school children, this can be done through:

1. Reporting the presence of children at risk of dropping out and out-of-school children;

2. Preparing policies, regulations, programmes, activities, and action plans for the prevention and handling of out-of-school children at national and regional levels;

3. Organising programmes and activities for the prevention and handling of out-of-school children;

4. Education on the prevention and handling of out-of-school children;

5. Outreach and mapping of needs to return children to education services;

6. Providing support services for children returning to school;

7. Assisting out-of-school children to ensure they return to school and avoid the risk of dropping out again;

8. Other forms of participation that support the implementation of the prevention and handling of out-of-school children.

The regulation also explains that the Gross Participation Rate (APK) for primary to secondary education levels continues to improve, but still faces the challenge of a high number of out-of-school children. Based on the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susesnas) conducted by BPS, there are 3.78 million children aged 6-18 years who are not attending school.

The majority of out-of-school children are secondary school-aged (16-18 years), namely 2.4 million children. Based on their distribution, it can be seen that the number of out-of-school children is concentrated in North Sumatra Province, Banten, Special Capital Region of Jakarta (DKI Jakarta), West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, and Papua.