The Covid-19 pandemic shut schools across the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and amplified inequality. But it also provided an impetus for a sweeping reform in Indonesia’s school system, Education Minister Nadiem Makarim said.
As the country battled one of Asia’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks and schools remained closed, students in regions with little to no access to internet and reliable electricity suffered the most. For the first time this year, his ministry is allocating funds to schools based on the poverty index, providing more funds to those in poorer regions than schools in metropolitan cities.
