Thousands of Indonesian School Buildings Are Located in Disaster-Prone Areas

According to the report from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), there are currently 497,576 school buildings in Indonesia.

However, only 25 thousand buildings, or about 5%, fall into the disaster-safe category. Meanwhile, most of them are located in disaster-prone areas.

"This is something we all need to note: when discussing infrastructure development, the knowledge to build correctly is absolutely essential to implement," said Abdul Muhari, Head of the Data, Information, and Disaster Communication Center of BNPB, in a press conference on BNPB's YouTube channel, Monday (13/10/2025).

BNPB also mapped school buildings located in high-risk disaster areas. This is most commonly found in East Java, with a total of 1,890 schools.

"Whatever it may be, whether earthquakes, landslides, flash floods, and so on. Their feasibility must be thoroughly audited," said Muhari.

Here is a list of 10 provinces with the highest number of school buildings in high-risk disaster areas, according to BNPB:

1. East Java: 1,890 buildings
2. Central Java: 1,833 buildings
3. West Java: 1,529 buildings
4. North Sumatra: 1,163 buildings
5. South Kalimantan: 894 buildings
6. South Sumatra: 657 buildings
7. West Kalimantan: 592 buildings
8. Central Kalimantan: 418 buildings
9. Riau: 373 buildings
10. South Sulawesi: 312 buildings