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Indonesian students still grappling with learning loss due to pandemic
A 2023 World Bank study has found that Indonesian students on average lost 11.2 months of learning over three years of COVID-19, but that the government fared relatively well in managing education delivery during the pandemic.
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Students assemble for morning roll call on July 18, 2022, the first day of school, at SDN Inpres Vim 3 state elementary school in Kotaraja subdistrict, Jayapura, Papua. (Antara/Sakti Karuru)
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly fallen out of the limelight, but the education sector is still reeling from its impacts, and a recent study suggests that Indonesian students have lost an average of nearly one year’s learning.
When the pandemic hit the country in March 2020, most schools were required to close, shift to online learning and stay that way for a total of 23 months. Some were luckier, and were permitted to accommodate a handful of students in their classrooms through hybrid learning.
Teachers, students and parents all struggled with the sudden transition to remote learning during that time.
Now that in-person learning has returned full swing, parents like Melly, 44, from South Tangerang, Banten, say their children are starting to reel from the effects of learning loss: the loss of knowledge and skills or a disruption to academic progress that students experience as a result of being away from school.
Melly said her sons, a 10-year-old in fourth grade and a 6-year-old in first grade, were now happy that they could learn at school with their friends. “But when it comes to learning loss, I can definitely see the impacts,” she told The Jakarta Post.
She added that her eldest son never had the chance to learn English in school, as the subject was dropped from the curriculum during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, her youngest was struggling to adjust to the rigors of being at school six hours each day, compared to two hours of online learning per school day during the pandemic.
