Most School Reopenings Delayed due to High Risk

KOMPAS/YOLA SASTRA

Students attend a class at elementary school SD 05 Padang, Sawahan subdistrict, East Padang district, Padang, West Sumatra, on Monday. All regencies/cities in West Sumatra, except Padang Panjang municipality, opened school doors and resumed activities under strict health protocols.

A total of 16 provinces have delayed plans to resume in-class learning. To support online learning, the Education and Culture Ministry will again provide mobile credit assistance.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Based on data gathered by the Education and Culture Ministry, only 14 of the 34 provinces in the country have stated their readiness to resume classroom learning at their schools. Meanwhile, four provinces have implement in-class and online learning and 16 provinces have put off their in-class learning plans.

In order to support online learning, the Education and Culture Ministry will again make available mobile credit assistance this year, with an improved mechanism for distributing the assistance.

Also read: New Cases Still High, Local Administration Cautious

The 14 provinces prepared to resume in-class learning activities are West Java, Yogyakarta, Riau, South Sumatra, Lampung, Central Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, North Maluku, Bangka Belitung, the Riau Islands and West Sulawesi.

The four provinces running in-class and online learning activities are Maluku, West Sumatra, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua.

The checklist of health protocols must be followed stringently.

Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim stressed that plans to resume in-class learning must comply with the Four-Minister Joint Decree (SKB) on Educational Guidelines for Even-numbered Semesters of the 2020-2021 Academic Year During the Covid-19 Pandemic. The checklist of health protocols must be followed stringently.

Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta

A grade 2 student at SD Pembangunan Jaya 2 Sidoarjo elementary school, Annada Sanjiwani, attends an online class using a smartphone in Sidoarjo, East Java, on Monday. The high number of COVID-19 cases has forced schools to continue online learning, which was first introduced in March 2020.

“We will continue to implement the four-minister SKB announced on 20 November 2020. In the meantime, we’re increasing all supporting facilities for learning, such as the Rumah Belajar (learning home) application as a backup to online learning,” the minister said on Tuesday (5/1/2021) in Jakarta.

The SKB stipulates that in-class learning may be conducted upon obtaining permission from the regional administration or either the regional office or local branch of the Religious Affairs Ministry by hierarchical tier, followed by the assent from educational units and parents.

Also read: New Cases Still High, Local Administration Cautious

Jumeri, the Director General of Early Childhood, Primary and Intermediate Education at the Education Ministry, said that each regional administration knew best about the Covid-19 transmission in their regions, as well as the readiness of schools and parents. “In-class learning is by permission, not an obligation,” he said.

Of the 14 provinces ready to resume in-class learning, continued Jumeri, it was not certain that 100 percent of all regencies and cities in these provinces would be holding learning activities that required physical classroom attendance. He added that the 16 provinces that had postponed their plans to resume in-class learning, the postponement could last from one to two months.

KOMPAS/ISMAIL ZAKARIA

A student at state high school SMAN 1 Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, washes her hands before entering her classroom on Monday. Aside from applying strict health protocols, the school also required students to attend classes in shifts, limiting the number of students in each classroom. The policy was aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Worsening situation

Speaking while receiving Covid-19 treatment after testing positive for the disease, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that the provincial administration would not resume in-class learning as of yet because of the worsening local situation.

Parents or relatives must also take their children to school and pick them up.

East Java is still trailing the resumption of in-class learning in its regencies and cities by reopening one senior high school, one vocational high school and one school for the disabled with 25 percent maximum student attendance. The trial period lasts only three class hours per day without breaks or canteen services, and students must follow the health protocols. Parents or relatives must also take their children to school and pick them up.

In Surabaya, acting mayor Whisnu Sakti Buana said he was still in doubt about resuming in-class learning because of the high local transmission of Covid-19.

The Sidoarjo regency administration has allocated a quota of 1,000 free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests for educators and educational staff, but only a few had taken advantage of the offer. “Only around 500 or 50 percent of educators are prepared to take the PCR swab test. This poses a risk to the resumption of in-class learning,” said the head of the Sidoarjo Health Office, Syaf Satriawarman.

Also read: Synergy in Overcoming Pandemic

Purwakarta regency in West Java has cancelled its plans to resume in-class learning on 11 Jan. 2021 in the three districts of Kiarapedes, Sukasari and Maniis, because the areas border regencies at high risk of Covid-19 transmission, Karawang and West Bandung.

Mobile credit assistance

As a backup to the realization of online learning, this year the Education and Culture Ministry is again distributing mobile credit assistance. “The mobile data aid program will be continued, but the method [of distribution] will be better. We will also add improvements to Covid-19 control,” said acting secretary-general Ainun Na’im of the Education and Culture Ministry.

Kompas/Priyombodo

Jani, a student at Islamic kindergarten Citra Azzahra in Jakarta, creates a bracelet with the help of her teacher at her home in Kreo, Tangerang municipality, Banten, on Tuesday. Aside from checking in on the students, the teacher’s visit was made to hand over books for the learning-from-home process. The high number of COVID-19 cases has forced schools to continue online learning.

Responding to the plan, coordinator Satriwan Salim of Society for Education and Teachers (P2G) said that the government should be serious about managing the data on target recipients, including coordinating with education offices and schools.

According to Satriwan, the mobile data assistance cannot be a blanket program for all students, teachers and lecturers. The government should designate categories for disadvantaged people and empower education offices and schools to assess those eligible for the assistance so it was used more appropriately.(MED/ETA/BRO/MEL/NIK)

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira).

(The captions were translated by Kurniawan H. Siswoko).