INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES 2021, VOL. 1, NO. 1, 1 – 6 OPEN ACCESS CONTACT I Komang Winatha ikomang.winatha@fkip.unila.ac.id © 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Lighthouse Publishing. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial NoDerivatives License ( http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The effectiveness of secondary education affirmation program (ADEM) for repatriated students in Indonesia: A case study in Lampung province on Sumatra island I Komang Winatha 1* Albet Maydiantoro 2 Suroto 3 Fanni Rahmawati 4 Yon Rizal 5 1-5 Economic Education, Universitas Lampung, Bandar Lampung, Indonesia ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The Secondary Education Affirmation Program (ADEM) for repatriated students is an effort made by the Indonesian government to provide educational services for students who have difficulties accessing education abroad. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the government program implementation in Lampung province on Sumatera island, Indonesia. This study adopted a qualitative approach using interviews for data collection. The collected data were then descriptively analyzed. The result indicates that ADEM program is an effective way for providing access to proper education for repatriated students. However, several learning difficulties during the program implementation, such as differences in language, culture, food, and facilities, need to be taken into account. The study’s limitations with several suggestions for future research are also discussed. ADEM; education; government; Indonesia; repatriated students Received: 29 January 2021 Accepted: 2 February 2021 Published: 3 February 2021 Introduction Education is one of the basic rights and needs that should be obtained by all Indonesian citizens. The national education system must be able to ensure equitable distribution of educational opportunities and increase the quality and relevance of education to face the challenges of local, national and global changes (Law Number 20 of 2003). This is an effort to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources in order for them to be able to compete in today’s era of globalization. The existences of instructions for the implementations of Law Number 20 of 2003 concerning National Education System, Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 47 of 2008 concerning Compulsory Education, and Presidential Instruction Number 5 of 2006 concerning National Movement for the Acceleration of Completion of Nine-Year Compulsory Education and the