FILE PHOTO: In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency, rescuers carry a body from a collapsed building at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. - BASARNAS via AP
JAKARTA: The government is forming a task force to inspect buildings at pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) across the country following the deadly collapse of Pondok Pesantren Al Khoziny in Sidoarjo, East Java, but experts warn auditing is not enough and say deeper reforms are needed for national oversight.
On Sept. 29, a three-story musholla (prayer room) at Al Khoziny school collapsed while dozens of students were performing asar (afternoon prayer).
Search and rescue personnel saved 104 students, while the toll reached 61 dead and two missing as of Oct. 8, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
The incident, said to be the country’s deadliest non-natural disaster this year, has sparked alarm over chronic mismanagement and lax safety standards at more than 40,000 pesantren nationwide that house 11 million students and employ one million teachers.
In response, Coordinating Social Empowerment Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government would establish a task force to conduct a building audit at all Islamic boarding schools and to carry out urgent repairs, starting with the oldest and most at-risk facilities.
The task force would also verify the number and location of pesantren “based on data from regional administrations, and then cross-check them with community reports”, Muhaimin told reporters on Tuesday (Oct 7), after a meeting with Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo.
He also urged boarding schools to obtain the building approval (PBG), after authorities found that only 50 boarding schools held the preconstruction permit.
“No matter how small, every pesantren building must have a PBG permit. The Public Works Ministry has reassured the process will be free of charge,” Muhaimin added.
Ubaid Matraji, coordinator at the Network for Education Watch Indonesia, also known as NEW Indonesia, welcomed the government’s plan to conduct a building audit at pesantren nationwide. However, he also emphasised that follow-through was needed to ensure that the schools received adequate funding to maintain safe facilities.
“Our Constitution doesn’t distinguish between private and public schools, or between regular and religious boarding schools,” Ubaid said on Thursday. “Wherever a child is learning, it is the responsibility of the state to not only fund their education but also guarantee their safety.”
This constitutional principle was often not reflected in government policies, he continued, noting that pesantren, their students and teachers tended to be overlooked in education development because they were under the authority of the Religious Affairs Ministry rather than the Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry.
“But when complaints are lodged with the Religious Affairs Ministry, there’s often little it can do, given its limited budget,” Ubaid added.
Similarly, Anggi Afriansyah, an education expert at the National Research and Innovation Agency, said government intervention at pesantren must extend beyond ensuring building safety. He added it should also focus on addressing long-standing disparities in quality and resource allocation among boarding schools.
According to Anggi, many Islamic boarding schools started out as small Quran study centres financed by local clerics, including those that started before Indonesia became independent.
They later evolved to deliver formal education, though he said not all managed the transition well.
The Pesantren Law of 2019 was meant to formalise state recognition of the educational and religious functions of Islamic boarding schools through provisions mandating government oversight to standardise education quality, Anggi said, but the government remained lacklustre in fulfilling this obligation.
“Ironically, many high-ranking officials and politicians are pesantren alumni. Yet few seem to grasp these issues in their entirety,” he said.
“The state must better support pesantren, through either funding or oversight, without undermining their unique traditions.”
Amid growing scrutiny over government oversight of the schools, Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Romo Muhammad Syafi’i acknowledged that the ministry’s pesantren directorate could no longer effectively supervise over 40,000 Islamic boarding schools.
“This is not a small number. [...] That’s why the organisational structure of the [directorate] must be upgraded into its own directorate general,” Romo said on Thursday, as quoted by Antara.
“Pesantren have made significant contributions to poverty alleviation and fostering religious harmony. They deserve special attention from the state,” he added.
Romo said the ministry had been working on a proposal to form a new directorate general to supervise pesantren since 2019, and that an updated proposal had been submitted to the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Ministry on Tuesday. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
