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Cautious school year
Reopening schools is a difficult choice, but a bold decision must be made for the greater good of children.
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Students wear masks and face shields while studying at a local elementary school in Garut village, Darul Imara district, Aceh Besar regency, Aceh on Dec. 2, 2020. (Antara/Ampelsa)
W
ith no end to the pandemic in sight, the government has insisted that in-class learning will resume when the next academic year starts in July for the sake of 60 million students whose right to education has been adversely affected by the health crisis for more than a year.
The Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry has made it clear education cannot wait for the pandemic to be fully under control, as nobody knows when that will happen. In other words, reopening schools is a difficult choice, but a bold decision must be made for the greater good of children.
We cannot deny the fact that the pandemic has worsened the great divide, particularly in education, which is why face-to-face learning is needed. A Statistics Indonesia (BPS) report in 2020, for example, estimates that internet, the backbone of online learning, remains elusive for nearly 65 percent of elementary school students in the country, with only a tiny 6 percent having access to a computer.
Among those who have the luxury of internet access and gadgets, remote learning is difficult to follow for many reasons. There have been complaints about less attractive online learning activities, which is actually unsurprising because we, including teachers, have never before experienced a disruption such as this.
Worse, the pandemic has reportedly caused rises in the school dropout rate, failed subjects and student mental health issues, not to mention domestic violence targeting children, child marriage and other worrying impacts of the studying at home rule.
Returning to school is therefore deemed a panacea. The government has therefore included 5 million teachers on its priority list for the national vaccination program, although a report says only one fifth of those have been inoculated so far.
Given the risks that students, teachers and parents will face when in-person schooling resumes, extra caution is imperative. We will only turn schools into new clusters of COVID-19 transmission if adherence to the health protocols among students, teachers, parents and other education stakeholders, including the public in general, remains low.
The question is: Are we really well prepared for schools to reopen? About 55 percent of schools have yet to submit their self-assessed reports on readiness to reopen. It remains uncertain as well whether the government has verified reports filed by the remaining 45 percent.
A school’s preparedness is measured by, among other things, classroom setting in compliance with physical distancing rules, handwashing facilities, temperature check devices and internal mechanisms to prevent crowds.
In January, the education ministry declared 14 out of 34 provinces ready for school reopening. Jakarta, the country's COVID-19 epicenter, is also gearing up for the “new normal” in education, with an in-class learning trial involving 300 schools slated to begin Wednesday.
The government’s decision to let students return to schools must have followed deliberations, but reopening schools should not be the only option on offer. It must respect parents who do not allow their students to attend classes for safety reasons.
For sure, we are set to go through another cautious school year. The sooner the government flattens the COVID-19 transmission curve, the faster it can realize education for all.
