Minister Of Public Works Reveals Only 51 Islamic Boarding Schools In Indonesia Have PBG Permits

Minister of Public Works Dody Hanggodo. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Public Works (PU) Dody Hanggodo revealed that data on Islamic boarding schools (Ponpes) have a Building Approval Permit (PBG) of only 51 out of around 42,000 spread across the country. Most of the boarding schools do not have a permit or the quality of the building is unknown.

This was conveyed by Dody after a meeting with the Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin at the Ministry of Public Works office, Jakarta, Tuesday, October 7.

"It seems that most of them are not licensed. Only 51 are licensed in our PBG system," said Dody.

Dody added that his party would directly check all Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia as well as help with the processing of permits.

"Later we will check all Islamic boarding schools that have not been licensed while we help them to take care of their permits," he said

Dody explained that the problem of the lack of Islamic boarding schools that have PBG permits is because they are too lightly taken.

Even though the permit is needed to ensure the feasibility of the building to be used.

"Yes, maybe because the pesantren, right, likes students for students, so they think they don't need permission. Even though the permit is to convince that what is built is in accordance with the norms, column quality, quality of structure and so on," said Dody.

On the other hand, said Dody, many Islamic boarding schools are located far from urban areas. This makes awareness makes PBG minimal.

"PBG's permit management, yes, I think so too. Because usually PBG's business is only in big cities, yes. In small cities maybe they are not too aware of that," he said.

Menurut Dody, Pesantren Tebuireng di Jawa Timur menjadi contoh baik soal perizinan dan kualitas bangunannya.

Tak hanya soal pendidikannya, Tebuireng juga punya bangunan modern.

"Kayak Tebuireng itu kan bagus-bagus. Kan memang ada pondok pesantren yang sangat modern, nah itu memang bagus dan ada ya tapi itu hanya sebagian kecil, sebagian besarnya kan sangat terbatas," ucapnya.

According to Dody, the Tebuireng Islamic Boarding School in East Java is a good example of licensing and the quality of the building.

Not only about education, Tebuireng also has modern buildings.

"It's like Tebuireng is good. There is indeed a very modern Islamic boarding school, now it's really good and there is, but it's only a small part, most of it's very limited," he said.