East Java to open Sekolah Rakyat at Unesa campus

Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA) - East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa has confirmed two locations for the establishment of Sekolah Rakyat (People's School) at the State University of Surabaya (Unesa), which will be designed to be disability-friendly.

Sekolah Rakyat is a free education program initiated by the Indonesian government to promote equal access to education and reduce poverty.

“We see that Unesa is well-prepared to support the Sekolah Rakyat program. Its learning facilities and dormitories have been designed to be inclusive and accessible for students with special needs,” Parawansa said in a statement issued on Saturday.

She added that Sekolah Rakyat students will be able to use various facilities within the Unesa campus to develop their talents and potential, noting that the university is recognized as a national center for sports science.

Parawansa also stressed the importance of preparing non-physical infrastructure—such as educational systems and support mechanisms—before the program begins.

She praised Unesa’s character-based education model, which uses an input-process-output framework to guide student development.

The governor noted that the East Java provincial government continues to coordinate with the central government, particularly in gathering data on Decile 1 families—households in the lowest 10 percent in terms of socio-economic welfare, based on the National Socio-Economic Single Data (DTSEN).

“Around 42 percent of East Java’s population falls into Decile 1. If the central government uses this as a basis to recruit Sekolah Rakyat students, we are ready to begin implementation in July,” she said.

She added that the regional government is currently awaiting further instructions from the central government regarding learning mechanisms, teacher recruitment, and dormitory management.

“For now, we are at the stage of preparing physical infrastructure. The next steps will follow guidance from the central government,” she explained.

Unesa Rector Prof. Nurhasan affirmed the university’s readiness to support Sekolah Rakyat, highlighting several key strengths including its inclusive campus, complete sports facilities, and spaces for arts and culture.

“We’ve prepared a dormitory with a capacity of 150 people. If the government assigns us to run Sekolah Rakyat at the high school level, we are fully ready,” he said.