Employees of the National Police's forensics lab collecting evidence at the site of the explosion on Nov 7, 2025. - Reuters
JAKARTA: Following two explosions at a North Jakarta school last Friday (Nov 7) that injured nearly 100 people, the Jakarta administration has launched a citywide safety evaluation of learning facilities, which had been largely ignored in policymaking.
The two blasts occurred in an on-campus mosque at SMAN 72 Jakarta senior high school in Kelapa Gading around midday, when male students were performing Jumatan (Friday prayers) as prescribed in Islam.
No fatalities were reported in the incident, which has been ruled out as a terror attack.
Police have so far pointed to one student as the alleged perpetrator, though they have not declared a suspect status for the student, who was among those injured.
Investigators have found several pieces of evidence, including written notes and a powdery substance they believe were used in the explosives, and are investigating the motive behind the incident.
Jakarta Deputy Governor Rano Karno said the city administration had started evaluating school safety standards.
“Let us make this incident a shared lesson for us to be more aware and to enhance the culture of safety in our [school] environment,” Rano said in a statement on Sunday night, after visiting dozens of injured students receiving treatment at Jakarta Islamic Hospital and Yarsi Hospital, both in Central Jakarta.
On Friday, the Jakarta Education Agency issued a five-point circular instructing schools to improve awareness on safe learning environments and to improve detection of potential security threats during school hours.
The circular also urges teachers and parents to play a greater role in supporting the mental health of school-age children.
“We are trying to harmonise all elements – schools, families and the public – into one, hoping to provide educational services that focus on the children," agency head Nahdiana said on Saturday.
Ubaid Matraji, national coordinator at Network for Education Watch Indonesia (NEW Indonesia), urged the government to create a detailed plan to make schools safer, particularly since little attention and investment had been devoted to safeguarding learning facilities across the country.
“[School safety] has yet to be considered an important and strategic [aspect] in improving students’ learning quality,” Ubaid told The Jakarta Post on Monday (Nov 10).
“As a result, the education budget is wasted on [fulfilling] political promises that are not directly relevant to educational needs.”
The explosive incident at the North Jakarta school has gained both national and international coverage and raised uncomfortable questions about how a teenager could allegedly assemble what is believed to be a homemade explosive, which is rare in Indonesia.
The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has suggested the student might have been influenced by social media, and urged the government to better protect children from harmful content online.
Meanwhile, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said on Sunday that President Prabowo Subianto was considering banning certain online games with violent themes, such as first-person multiplayer shooting game PUBG: Battlegrounds, Antara reported.
Prasetyo added that the government was also considering bullying as a possible factor behind the incident. In 2024, NEW Indonesia recorded 573 bullying cases at schools and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) nationwide, just over double the 285 cases reported in 2023.
“The root cause lays in how we’ve normalised acts of violence in everyday school life,” the watchdog’s Ubaid said.
As of Monday, most of those injured in the incident had been discharged while 29 remained hospitalised, including at least three in intensive care. SMAN 72 has been conducting classes online since the incident. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
