TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Class struggle and children’s long-distance learning
Many have complained of gaining weight during the current pandemic, due to staying at home and having the munchies. Well, there is one way to avoid that: have school age kids who are engaged in long-distance learning.
Change Size
Phone-schooling: A mother helps her son with online-learning at their home in Medan, North Sumatra, on March 25. Due to the pandemic, students have to study from home, although recently the government has allowed schools in low-risk areas to reopen. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
M
any have complained of gaining weight during the current pandemic, due to staying at home and having the munchies. Well, there is one way to avoid that: have school age kids who are engaged in long-distance learning (Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh, PJJ).
That is the experience of “Umi”, a mother with an 11-year-old son, “Tomi” in the sixth grade. Already thin, she has gotten skinnier since they followed the PJJ instruction from the Education and Culture Ministry, while Tomi has gotten chubbier and chubbier.
The morning starts with roll call at 6:30, taking a photo of Tomi in his school uniform. Later this is followed by various assignments: a video of Tomi making fried rice for breakfast, written assignments, or making things. Sometimes it involves getting materials, like when Tomi had to make plasticine. Umi had to rush to the store to buy food coloring as they had to make the plasticine in five colors.
For physical education (PE) class, Umi had to record Tomi dribbling a basketball 50 times alternately with his right and left hands, throwing the ball at a wall 50 times, and dribbling back and forth with his left and right hand 10 times. Seems simple enough, right? Except that the basketball was flat. No pump at home, so again Umi had to rush to the nearest place where she could get the basketball inflated.
Umi says that virtually – no pun intended! – everything the kids are required to do from school requires the involvement of parents. The good thing of course is that this hands-on approach makes the parents closer to their kids, but it also comes at a price. Even for a full-time mom it’s already tough, what about working mothers?
Umi is a single mother, who also has an elderly sick mom to take care of, and limited income as she only works part time.
Read also: Distance learning threatens to exacerbate education inequality in Indonesia
