President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim called for prudent measures to ensure the successful reopening of schools in July.
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said all teachers in Indonesia will have to be vaccinated before the end of June as the government is set to reopen schools in July, despite concerns that Indonesia is not completely out of the woods yet in controlling the virus.
Speaking with Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim, Jokowi said the government was aiming to transform education in the country from an offline-based to a hybrid model, which sped up in the last year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the acceleration of digitalization, Nadiem said that lack of access was among the challenges faced by many teachers and students, especially those living in frontier, outermost and least-developed regions.
Since the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, more than 60 million students across the nation have been forced to study from home, but uneven access to technology and inadequate online teaching methods have raised concerns that remote learning will only exacerbate the inequalities in education.
Various studies have shown that the social restrictions put in place to stop the viral transmission has increased the risk of school dropouts.
Read also: Jakarta sets June target for second phase of school reopening trials
According to UNICEF, three out of four children and adolescents from disadvantaged households who were still enrolled in school had at least one risk factor for dropping out, such as economic reasons, lack of facilities or access to distance learning.
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