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Teachers hesitant to return to online learning as PPKM orders school closures
Teachers are reluctant to return to online learning simply because their schools and students do not have the facilities to do so.
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A teacher tells students to maintain physical distancing at SD Kenari 08 state elementary school in Jakarta on June 9, 2021. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
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s more and more regions face strict mobility restrictions to contain the COVID-19 transmission, many teachers in remote regions are reluctant to return to online learning simply because their schools and students do not have the facilities to do so.
The government’s multi-tier mobility restrictions (PPKM), extended until Aug. 2 on Monday, have ordered school closures in regencies and cities implementing level 3 and 4 curbs. These are regions that have reported more than 50 confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per week.
The list of such regions grew from 137 regions across Indonesia when the PPKM was first extended to beyond Java and Bali on July 12, to 449 regions this week.
In the meantime, schools in the remaining 65 regencies and cities that have imposed the less stringent level 2 restrictions, regions with fewer than 50 confirmed cases per 100,000 people per week, are allowed to welcome students back into classrooms at 50 percent capacity. No regions fall into categories below this level.
Muhaimin, principal of Islamic school Nurul Mukhtar in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), said he was disappointed by the fact that in-person learning has once again been postponed indefinitely after the regency was put on the level 3 list for the first time on Monday.
After six months of in-person learning toward the end of the previous school year, Muhaimin said he was now hesitant to transition the school back to the more challenging online learning. Not all teachers and parents in his school were tech-savvy and ready to provide remote lessons or assist their children with online schooling.
“The plan was to go back to school [in July when the new academic year started]; we [teachers and students] all felt happy. But then COVID-19 [cases] spiked again,” Muhaimin said on Monday.
