Digital Divide and Equity Rhetoric in Indonesia's School Connectivity Policy: A Single-Case Discourse Analysis
TL;DR
The achievements and targets for expanding school internet connectivity in Indonesia during 2025-2026 are described in an official interview, the policy framework accompanying these targets are identified, and the extent to which success claims rest on comparative evidence is critically evaluated.
Abstract
Indonesia's education digitalization agenda confronts a persistent connectivity gap concentrated in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions, while policy evaluations typically rely on input indicators such as connected-school counts and platform-user figures. This study describes the achievements and targets for expanding school internet connectivity in Indonesia during 2025-2026 as communicated in an official interview, identifies the policy framework accompanying these targets, and critically evaluates the extent to which success claims rest on comparative evidence. The study employed a descriptive-interpretive qualitative design grounded in single-case policy discourse analysis; data were collected through a structured interview with one informant and analyzed thematically, triangulated with public policy documents. Results revealed that the connectivity target nearly doubled, rising from 8,265 to 16,557 educational units, with the informant framing this increase as part of an equity agenda that echoes global policy rhetoric. Platform usage figures appeared alongside limited baseline comparisons, so these success claims reflect the informant's own interpretation more than independently verified evidence. This study extends the capability approach into macro-level policy discourse analysis and offers a conceptual distinction among verified descriptive claims, unverified descriptive claims, and normative aspirational claims. Its originality lies in treating a single official policy interview, rather than survey data from students or teachers, as the primary object of discourse analysis, a design that remains uncommon in the Indonesian digital divide literature. Practically, the findings encourage governments and platform administrators to publish region-specific 3T data and year-on-year usage trends, ensuring that digital-equity rhetoric in Indonesian education policy remains genuinely accountable.