By Nur Abdullah | Project Staff
Since 2023, Punthuk Sewu Learning Center has provided informal education to bridge the academic gaps faced by underprivileged children and youth in Bantul, Yogyakarta. What began as a grassroots initiative has grown into a structured community effort to ensure that children from low-income and vulnerable households are not left behind in their educational journey.
Our focus has always been clear: to serve those with limited access to quality schooling and provide them with the tools needed to succeed—both within formal education and beyond it.
Currently, we serve more than 50 students through a holistic, impact-driven approach that integrates academic strengthening, character formation, and practical skill development:
Academic Support: Targeted tutoring in Mathematics and English to strengthen formal school performance and close learning gaps.
Character Building: Islamic education emphasizing ethics, discipline, responsibility, and moral development.
Community Empowerment: Vocational exposure in sustainable agriculture, livestock farming, and foundational soft skills to build resilience and practical competence.
Through consistent engagement, we have witnessed not only academic improvement but also increased confidence and aspiration among students who once doubted their ability to compete.
Why Formal Education Is Now Essential
Despite national progress, poverty remains a structural challenge in Indonesia. According to the World Bank’s 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook (based on the 2021 Purchasing Power Parity update), around 60% of Indonesia’s population—more than 170 million people—live below the upper-middle-income poverty line of USD 6.85 per person per day. Economic vulnerability remains widespread, particularly among informal workers and rural households.
This vulnerability directly impacts education.
Limited household income restricts families’ ability to provide:
Adequate nutrition for learning
School-related expenses
Books and learning materials
Access to digital devices and internet connectivity
As a result, children from poor and vulnerable households face significantly higher risks of learning loss and school dropout. Without structural intervention, poverty continues to reproduce itself across generations.
Through our close and continuous interaction with students, we have learned a critical lesson: informal support alone is not enough. To break the cycle of poverty sustainably, access to structured, high-quality formal education is essential—particularly in science, numeracy, and foundational competencies.
Our Vision: Establishing a Formal Junior Secondary School and Vocational Training Center
In response to this need, Yayasan INFEST has initiated plans to establish a formal education institution consisting of:
A Junior Secondary School (SMP level)
A Vocational Training Center (LPK)
The development is planned between 2026 and 2028.
We will adopt a boarding school model, commonly known in Indonesia as a pesantren. This model allows us to optimize learning outcomes while cultivating strong humanitarian and Islamic values, discipline, etiquette, and character formation.
By 2028, our goal is to support up to 400 students from underprivileged families across Yogyakarta.
This expansion represents not only growth in scale—but a deeper commitment to equity, access, and transformation.
What We Are Building
To make this vision a reality, we are developing essential infrastructure to support both academic and vocational learning, including:
Classroom buildings
Student dormitories
A main auditorium
A library
Health and sanitation facilities, including bathrooms and waste management systems
A STEM laboratory
A Vocational Training Center focused on agribusiness, livestock, and agricultural industries
Educational equipment and curriculum development resources
These facilities will create an integrated education ecosystem—where academic excellence, vocational competence, moral development, and community engagement grow together.
Why This Matters
Our experience serving 50 students through informal education has revealed a powerful truth: when children receive consistent support, access to quality instruction, and a nurturing environment, their trajectory changes.
However, many of our students come from disadvantaged households where insufficient academic support, limited learning materials, and minimal parental guidance significantly increase the likelihood of academic gaps and school abandonment.
Without targeted educational intervention, these conditions perpetuate intergenerational poverty.
Formal education—affordable, accessible, and holistic—is not simply an institutional upgrade. It is a structural response to systemic inequality.
By building this school, we are not only expanding facilities.
We are expanding opportunity.
We are strengthening resilience.
We are investing in dignity and long-term transformation.
And with the right support, we can ensure that rural children are no longer limited by circumstance—but empowered by access.
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