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Schools get ready to reopen in July amid lingering concerns
Even as enthusiasm rises among teachers about seeing their students again, various concerns remain over the plan to reopen schools at the start of the new academic year in July.
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A student washes his hands prior to entering a building at Lycée Français de Jakarta in Cipete, South Jakarta, on May 28, 2021. The facility is one of the measures the French school has adopted while piloting hybrid learning in April on the Jakarta Education Agency's approval. (JP/ Dio Suhenda)
O
ver a year since the COVID-19 pandemic forced 60 million students to study from home, Indonesia’s schools are finally dusting off their classrooms in preparation for the resumption of in-class learning in July, when the next academic year starts.
“The students and teachers, we all want to learn [in person]," Sumarna, the principal of Ulujami 05 elementary school in South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The school, which is currently being used as an isolation facility for returning mudik (exodus) travelers, is preparing to welcome back around 128 students.
To ensure that the school is safe for reopening in July, Sumarna had to find more cost-effective ways to provide safety and sanitation, with handwashing facilities substituted for big buckets filled with water.
Although the elementary school is close to finishing preparations for the reopening, it has another problem: a lack of teachers, as many have resigned or moved on to other career options.
But the excitement is palpable among the remaining teachers of Ulujami 05, who haven’t seen their students in person for over a year.
Many schools and teachers have had to make do with the bare minimum of online learning, ever since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo implemented the policy shortly after the first COVID-19 cases were recorded last March.
