To improve access to education for Indonesian children, the Government of Indonesia has implemented a program known as the Indonesia Smart Program (Program Indonesia Pintar – PIP) since 2014. Through PIP, the government has allocated a budget of IDR 9.344 trillion to be distributed to 17.9 million Indonesian children.

However, to what extent has PIP succeeded in improving children’s access to education? Beranda PSPK, Volume XI: An Overview of the Indonesia Smart Program opened a space for discussion among policymakers, parents, supervisors, school principals, teachers, researchers, and even children, with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of the program.

The discussion was moderated by Najelaa Shihab and featured key speakers Hamid Muhammad, M.Sc., Ph.D. (Director General of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of Education and Culture); Abdullah Faqih, M.A., M.Ed. (Head of the Student Affairs Subdirectorate, Directorate of Curriculum, Facilities, Institutions, and Student Affairs for Madrasahs, Directorate General of Islamic Education, Ministry of Religious Affairs); Dr. Salam, M.Pd. (Head of the Education Office of Gowa Regency); and Nisa Felicia, Ph.D. (PSPK Researcher).

The discussion opened with a theoretical framework on education programs presented by Nisa Felicia, Ph.D., a PSPK researcher. According to her, programs such as PIP are not new in international practice. Similar initiatives have long been implemented in many developing countries in Latin America and Asia. Often referred to as pro-poor education incentives and/or Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs, these initiatives are designed to prevent school dropouts, support personal education costs, reduce educational inequality, and increase school participation among children from poor and vulnerable households.

This aligns with one of the main targets of PIP, as explained by Hamid Muhammad, who highlighted that one of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s major challenges is reaching children who have already dropped out of school. At the same time, fundamental issues such as data collection still face various obstacles. Abdullah Faqih noted that although the Ministry of Religious Affairs identifies beneficiaries of the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP) using the Integrated Social Welfare Database (Basis Data Terpadu – BDT), many eligible children have not yet received KIP due to insufficient quota allocations for the ministry.

The issue of data collection was further confirmed by Sri Kusumastuti (representative of TNP2K), who explained that PIP differs from the former School Operational Assistance for Poor Students (BSM), which was school-based. PIP adopts a family-based approach, where beneficiary identification is conducted based on household data.

In addition to policymakers, the discussion also involved education practitioners. Nurrohim, founder of Sekolah Master Depok—an alternative school serving children from marginalized communities—shared challenges faced by his students during the fund disbursement process. Many children lack official identification documents, preventing banks from processing the assistance. Responding to this, Hamid Muhammad acknowledged that this is a common issue and emphasized that having official identification is essential. As a first step, the need for children’s legal identity documents should be addressed through coordination with social affairs offices. Similar challenges in fund disbursement were also shared by Dr. Salam, who noted that students often face difficulties accessing banks due to long distances.

A comparable concern was raised by Aditya, a staff member of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), who argued that more specific policies are required, particularly in frontier, outermost, and disadvantaged (3T) regions. In such areas, the cost of accessing disbursement points may exceed the amount of assistance received through KIP itself. In response, Dr. Salam suggested expanding disbursement channels in 3T regions, for example by utilizing postal money orders available closer to local communities.

Beyond issues related to data collection, distribution, disbursement, and utilization, the discussion also focused on feedback and recommendations from both speakers and participants on how to improve program effectiveness. Hamid Muhammad and Abdullah Faqih emphasized the importance of building an integrated cross-sector data system among ministries, including the BDT managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Dapodik database of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the EMIS database of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Faqih further noted that the data collected through PIP could also serve as feedback to improve the BDT.

Regarding efforts to reach out-of-school children, Dyah, a representative from TNP2K, stressed that such efforts must go beyond financial incentives provided through the Indonesia Smart Card. To enhance the effective use of the card, Santoso from Article 33 proposed considering performance indicators, such as students’ learning progress, graduation, and continuation to higher levels of education, as criteria in program implementation. Similar views were expressed by Dyah (TNP2K) and Nisa Felicia (PSPK), who suggested that graduation incentives and/or achievement tracking could be explored to improve the effectiveness of KIP distribution.

The discussion concluded with a summary by the moderator, highlighting that there are many areas of PIP that can still be improved. One of the top priorities is data integration, which requires strong coordination among ministries. Equally important, however, is ensuring that all Indonesian children gain access to quality education—an objective that cannot be achieved through PIP alone. All stakeholders are therefore invited to take part and assume roles in enhancing the effectiveness of PIP and expanding access to quality education.