Indonesian Deputy Speaker Lestari Moerdijat urges action on out‑of‑school children and expands digital library access

Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Lestari Moerdijat warned that Indonesia faces a serious challenge with nearly 3.97 million school‑age children out of education. She cited Ministry of Education data showing 1.91 million have never attended school, 987 000 dropped out and over 1 million completed primary school without continuing. Moerdijat called for precise, data‑driven interventions, political commitment and programmes such as Indonesia Pintar, scholarships and non‑formal vocational training to reach the children at the village level.

She also promoted a massive rollout of the integrated Indonesian Book Information System (SIBI) with the SLiMS library management platform. Since its launch, more than 8.8 million users have visited the site, reading 13.7 million digital books and downloading over 2.6 million items across 1 842 titles. Moerdijat urged nationwide socialisation so the digital library can be fully utilised to boost public literacy.