Social Minister Praises Kudus and Garut for Accelerating Permanent People's School Development

I am pleased that Kudus and Garut have taken the initiative to accelerate the People’s School programme. This is part of efforts to break the transmission of poverty,” said Agus in a written statement on Thursday (30/4/2026).

He conveyed this during an audience with the Head of the Social Services Office of Garut Regency and representatives from the Kudus DPRD at the Ministry of Social Affairs office on Wednesday (29/4/2026).

Agus emphasised that the People’s School is intended for children from deciles 1 and 2 of DTSEN as part of the strategy to eliminate extreme poverty to 0 percent by 2026.

“The People’s School must be excellent, with complete facilities such as dormitories, classrooms, kitchens, libraries, and places of worship,” he explained.

He also stressed that building permanent People’s Schools requires a minimum of 6.8 hectares of government-owned land and meets technical requirements. Some of these include not being in disaster-prone areas and having suitable land contours.

In addition to accelerating the construction of permanent People’s Schools, the audience also discussed strengthening disaster preparedness through the Disaster-Alert Village (KSB) programme in both regions.

Regarding disaster preparedness, Agus encouraged local governments to immediately propose the establishment of KSB.

“Please submit to the regent to propose KSB and social granaries,” he said.

Agus affirmed that the Ministry of Social Affairs has an adaptive social assistance scheme for disasters, supported through pre-disaster, emergency response, and recovery stages.

At the end of the meeting, Agus also emphasised the importance of synergy between the central and local governments.

“If the region faces obstacles, immediately coordinate with the district or provincial government. If still unable, escalate to the Ministry of Social Affairs so we can find solutions together,” said Agus.

On that occasion, Kudus DPRD representative Valerie stated that there are still around 6,000 out-of-school children (ATS) in the Kudus area.

“Field data shows there are still many children not attending school due to various issues. This needs to be a joint concern,” she revealed.

She also disclosed that the main obstacle to building the People’s School in Kudus is the limited availability of land.

In addition to education, Kudus also faces disaster challenges such as floods and landslides. This condition drives proposals to strengthen the KSB programme to support buffer stocks and community kitchens at the village level.

Meanwhile, Head of the Social Services Office of Garut Regency Marlinda stated that they already have a pilot People’s School with 75 students in 4 learning groups. However, Garut still faces land constraints for permanent school construction.

“In addition, we are also proposing the Disaster-Alert Village programme,” Marlinda concluded.