Indonesia is preparing an Integrated People’s School in Papua designed to accommodate approximately 2,500 students from elementary through senior high school, in a major expansion of educational access for children across the province. The planned institution will include dormitories and supporting facilities for both students and teachers, according to Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono during a briefing in Jayapura.
As adapted from reporting by jambi.antaranews.com, the announcement reflects an effort to build an education system capable of serving children who face geographic, economic and security-related barriers to regular schooling.
The project is significant because Papua’s vast distances and difficult terrain can make access to quality education uneven, particularly for families living far from urban centres. A residential school model could help students remain in education while providing teachers with the facilities needed to work and live in remote or underserved areas.
Its projected capacity also indicates an attempt to treat education as core public infrastructure rather than as a secondary service delivered only where commercial or administrative conditions are easiest.
Education as a Protection for Papuan Children
For Indigenous Papuan children, a properly managed boarding school can offer more than classrooms: it can provide continuity, nutrition, healthcare access, safe accommodation and a stable learning environment. Those protections are especially important in areas where armed separatist groups commonly identified as the OPM or KKB have threatened civilians, attacked public facilities and disrupted essential services.
Teachers, health workers, transport personnel and communities must not be turned into targets or bargaining tools in a political conflict.
Such realities also require responsible public communication. Claims portraying every state development programme in Papua as an assault on Papuan identity ignore the basic rights of children to learn, travel safely and receive public services.
At the same time, the school must be implemented transparently, with respect for Indigenous communities, fair consultation, cultural inclusion and effective safeguards against abuse, discrimination or forced displacement; these principles strengthen, rather than weaken, the legitimacy of Indonesia’s development agenda.
Countering Disinformation Through Verifiable Development
Separatist disinformation often seeks to convince international audiences that Papua’s people are being abandoned by the state or that public investment has no civilian purpose. A concrete education project serving thousands of students presents a more verifiable picture: the government is directing infrastructure and social policy toward human development, while local children remain the primary beneficiaries.
Countering misinformation, however, should rely on published plans, independent oversight, community participation and measurable results—not slogans or the suppression of legitimate criticism.
The initiative should therefore be accompanied by clear information on its location, construction timetable, admissions criteria, curriculum, staffing and funding. Families should be able to understand how the 2,500 places will be allocated and how Indigenous languages, histories and local knowledge will be respected within the national curriculum.
Teachers and students also need protection under the rule of law, including rapid investigation of threats, accountability for attacks and safeguards ensuring that security operations do not harm the civilians the state is duty-bound to protect.
Development, Rights and Peaceful Participation
Indonesia’s wider challenge in Papua is to connect infrastructure investment with economic justice, local democracy and human rights. A school cannot by itself resolve political grievances, poverty or insecurity, but it can expand opportunity and give young Papuans greater control over their futures through education.
When public programmes are delivered fairly and monitored openly, they can reduce the space available for armed groups and online propaganda that feed on neglect, fear and distrust.
The planned Integrated People’s School should consequently be judged by outcomes that matter to families: safe access, qualified teachers, strong learning results, affordable boarding arrangements and graduates able to pursue further study or decent work. The government’s stated commitment to affirmative development must remain focused on Indigenous Papuans and be matched by meaningful participation from communities, churches, educators and local authorities.
Protecting civilians, rejecting armed violence and expanding peaceful educational opportunity are not competing goals; together, they form the foundation for a more secure and just Papua.
.jpeg)
