President Prabowo Subianto has announced the formation of an Emergency Bridge Task Force to address dangerous access for schoolchildren in remote areas. The move follows reports of students crossing rivers without proper bridges. The central government will fund this crash program.
On November 28, 2025, President Prabowo Subianto explained the formation of the Emergency River Bridge Task Force during the Bank Indonesia Annual Meeting (PTBI) in Jakarta. He was moved after viewing a video of village children crossing raging rivers daily to attend school, arriving soaked. "The growth figures are very good, but our people every day, our children every day enter the river wet, sit in class wet, return home wet again," Prabowo stated.
Prabowo noted there are about 300,000 such river crossings across Indonesia. He emphasized a rapid execution phase without bureaucratic hurdles, involving universities, TNI Zeni Battalions, construction companies, territorial units, and relevant Polri elements for public facilities. "Our children are crying out, we must respond," he said. Prabowo ordered these elements to descend to villages to design and build crossing bridges.
A similar announcement was made by Prabowo at the 2025 National Teachers' Day event at Indonesia Arena, GBK, Jakarta, where he tasked Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Brian Yuliarto with mobilizing civil engineering human resources, along with TNI Zeni Battalions and Polri Brimob. "I cannot bear seeing children like that every day risking their lives to go to school," he asserted. He added that Jakarta elites must be sensitive through real work, not mockery.
In follow-up, Interior Minister Muhammad Tito Karnavian held a coordination meeting on November 28, 2025, urging local governments to map damaged, absent, or hazardous access like rivers and cliffs to schools. Data must be submitted to the Interior Ministry by December 4, 2025, to underpin the emergency program funded by central reserve funds, not regional budgets. The President is touched by this condition and is preparing quick solutions for vulnerable groups.
