Toxic air pollution levels have forced 12,800 schools across six provinces in Sumatra and Borneo to close
1-MIN READ1-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 8:01pm, 2 Sep 2026About 1.4 million students in six Indonesian provinces had shifted to online learning due to poor air quality triggered by forest and land fires, an official said on Wednesday.As of September 2, around 1.43 million students from 12,874 schools in six of the provinces hit hardest by forest and land fires had been studying remotely, Gogot Suharwoto, an education ministry official, told the media.
Of the 1.43 million students, 1.1 million were in West Kalimantan, Gogot said, the province that has recorded the most extensive wildfires so far this year.
The remote learning period would last from Monday until Friday and would be continuously evaluated every three days, Gogot said.
01:01Indonesia’s Kalimantan blanketed in thick haze as country continues to battle wildfiresThe decision to conduct online learning would be based on the air pollution standard index in each region, he said.
