Schools are Fortresses: Reading 3T Policy as a Sovereignty Strategy

In classical geopolitical literature, a nation’s sovereignty is measured by the extent to which its power reaches its outermost territories. It is not merely about coloured maps or flags planted on remote islands, but a deeper question: do the citizens living at the edge of the country truly feel the presence of the state? By this metric, a school standing tall on the border with a leak-free roof, decent classrooms, and teachers present every morning is a more tangible statement of sovereignty than even a military fleet.

This is the lens required to interpret the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education’s policy, which prioritises the construction of new schools in 3T (frontier, outermost, and disadvantaged) areas. When the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Abdul Mu’ti, stated in Manokwari on 28 May 202le that every school construction proposal from 3T regions would be prioritised, he was not merely speaking in pedagogical terms, but in geopolitical language. He was describing how a state asserts its presence not through weapons, but through school desks.

Historically, discourse regarding Indonesia’s border regions has been dominated by defence and security perspectives—military posts, naval patrols, and island guarding. While vital, there is a more decisive long-term dimension: the dimension of loyalty born from a sense of belonging. History teaches us that border regions neglected by their nation are vulnerable, not just militarily, but psychologically and culturally. Citizens who never experience the state through meaningful forms, such as proper schools or functioning health facilities, may develop transactional relationships with the state, or worse, view the state as a foreign entity that only arrives to take rather than to give.

This reality is not mere speculation. Various separatist conflicts globally have roots in the absence of the state in the daily lives of peripheral citizens. A state that only appears for strategic interests and disappears during normal life is a state accumulating seeds of distrust. For instance, SMP Negeri 1 Towe in the Papua border region received over Rp2.6 billion in revitalisation aid for laboratories, classrooms, teacher housing, and sanitation. The principal, Laurensius Wiku, described this as a long-term investment in the future of Papua’s generation, noting that a proper school changes how a child perceives their relationship with the nation.

Reading this policy through a geopolitical lens means viewing budget statistics as indicators of how seriously the state is maintaining its integrity. Throughout 2025, revitalisation programmes reached 14,072 educational units, from early childhood to high school, with 949 located in eastern Indonesia and 3T areas. For 2026, the government targets the revitalisation of 71,744 educational units with a state budget allocation of Rp14 trillion, focusing on 3T areas, disaster-affected schools, and those with heavy damage.

In a geopolitical context, each revitalised school in a 3T area represents a strengthened point of state presence. Every classroom built on the border is a space where national identity is formed and lived. As geopolitical thinker Karl Deutsch noted, national cohesion is built not by military force alone, but by networks of communication, public services, and shared experiences. Schools in border regions serve as fundamental infrastructure for national cohesion. Furthermore, the quality of public services in these areas serves as a silent comparison with neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste. When citizens see better facilities across the border, it can weaken the affective ties to their own nation; conversely, when Indonesia provides adequate schools, it reinforces the bond between the citizen and the state.