I am grateful to have smart friends in a rich region who can seize opportunities. Smart because they know where to take the available money so that today Bojonegoro is the first district in the world to organize a Village RPL. A smart person is one who can distribute his potential for the sake and benefit of his community. Thank you to Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta and Universitas Negeri Surabaya for managing in such a way in guiding students. This was said by the Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Dr. (HC) Abdul Halim Iskandar in the Commemoration of Village Recognition of Past Learning (RPL) Day which was held at GOR Utama Bojonegoro, Friday (3/3). Furthermore, Abdul Halim Iskandar said that students must study more seriously. "The final project should be prepared in such a way, the Ministry of Villages is ready to assist" he said. Many things that happen in the community can be used as material for the final project, including village support in providing early childhood education services, the role of human development cadres in handling village stunting, or the impact of village funds in socio-economic changes in the community. The Village Minister reminded the Village RPL students that their achievements up to this level were due to the policies of the Bojonegoro Regent, therefore the Village Minister invited them to welcome Bojonegoro with the one village ten scholars program and welcome the Village RPL master program from Bojonegoro.
According to the Regent of Bojonegoro, Dr. Hj Anna Mu'awanah, at this time Bojonegoro Regency has the honor of continuing the S2 level Village RPL program. "High appreciation to the Ministry of Villages PDTT for making Bojonegoro Regency the place to commemorate the first Village RPL Day" said Anna Mu'awanah. This makes the Regional Head even more enthusiastic in making policies to improve the quality of human resources, one of which is through the Village RPL program. According to her, Bojonegoro has competitiveness in several fields such as education, health, infrastructure, people's economy, public services to governance thus paving the way for better services to the Bojonegoro community. In addition to improving the quality of human resources, Bojonegoro also has educational scholarships and health insurance allocations for the entire community with 100% achievement. Bojonegoro received Village RPL scholarships for 999 people where UNY got a quota of 394 students divided into 5 study programs namely Accounting, Management, Out-of-School Education, Sociology Education and Public Administration. The Regent plans for Village RPL S2 which has mapped potential interests of 910 people divided into village heads 15 people, village officials 519 people, BPD 81 people, Bumdes 226 people and TPP P3MD 69 people. UNY participated in the commemoration of the Village RPL Day. The UNY delegation consisted of the Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs Prof. Siswantoyo accompanied by the Head of Admissions, Study Program Coordinator, Expert Staff for Academic Affairs, Head of Sub-Directorate, Head of Section and a number of faculty lecturers.
One of the RPL students, Mohammad Rokhani, Head of the Welfare Section of the Sambungrejo Village Government, Gondang, Bojonegoro, said that at first he wondered whether he could study while working as a village official. "This is a challenge for me and it is a local government program, so I work while studying for my undergraduate degree," he said. The student of the Sociology Education program at the Faculty of Social, Legal and Political Sciences UNY admitted that he remained enthusiastic in providing services to the community while studying at the same time. Meanwhile, Mohammad Sujud, a member of Butoh Village Bumdes, Sumberejo, Bojonegoro, explained that one of the extraordinary applications of this management study program is to increase the profit of business units in the village. "The tourism that we are engaged in can increase with the knowledge we get," said the management student of the Faculty of Economics and Business UNY. Sujud hopes that this RPL program can continue to realize the dreams of village children for the awakening of Indonesia.