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More schools to reopen amid pandemic
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joint decree issued in June by the education minister, the religious affairs minister, the home minister and the health minister agreed on the reopening of schools in so-called “green zones”, areas free of COVID-19, at the beginning of July.
Amid daily increases in coronavirus cases in the archipelago – only a month after its implementation – a revised joint decree that allows for more schools to reopen was issued on Friday. This time around they will allow schools located in yellow zones with low COVID-19 risk to reopen.
The government has color-coded the COVID-19 infection condition for regions across Indonesia with green, yellow, orange and red. Green zones are for areas that have zero cases of COVID-19 infection, yellow zones for areas that have low COVID-19 risk, orange zones for areas with moderate COVID-19 risk and red zones are areas that have high risk of the disease.
“We are allowing face-to-face learning in schools but not forcing it,” Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim repeatedly said during a media conference on Friday, “So, it doesn’t mean that when the schools are in green or yellow zones, then they are obliged to open.”
Quoting his ministry data, Nadiem said currently 57 percent of the student population lives in red and orange zones and the remaining 43 percent in green and yellow zones across 276 regencies and cities.
“Many of these 43 percent of the student population live in the country’s outermost, frontline and disadvantaged regions,” the minister said.
Like the reopening policy for schools in green zones, Nadiem said, the final say on whether to open the schools or not would be fully decided by the schools, the respective local administration and the respective education agency.
He said the decision to allow more regions to open schools was made after the ministry had received complaints and insights from teachers and parents who had had a hard time implementing distance learning during the pandemic.
A previous survey by the education ministry found that most schools in Indonesia, 97.6 percent of schools surveyed, have moved to remote learning during the pandemic. The survey, however, also found that distance learning has reduced teacher-student interactions significantly.
"The government's main priority is to prioritize the health and safety of students, educators, education staff, families and society in general, and to consider the growth and development of students and psychosocial conditions in an effort to fulfill educational services during the COVID-19 pandemic," Nadiem said.
A set of standard procedures has also been prepared to ensure that health protocols are obeyed, including a maximum of 15 students in each class.
The ministry has also prepared a simplified version of the 2013 curriculum for the current academic year during the pandemic, which allows teachers to focus on fewer basic competences, thus providing the students with deeper and better comprehension of the subjects taught.
"[It] provides flexibility for schools to choose a curriculum that suits the learning needs of students," Nadiem said, adding that the adaptive curriculum was another alternative that the schools could choose to use in the pandemic situation.
Also in the media conference, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy disclosed that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had instructed during a limited Cabinet meeting on Aug. 5 that the ministries should allow a relaxation for face-to-face learning activities after a lot of consideration, including complaints from parents and children.
"We realize that we cannot continue living in fear behind the shadow of COVID-19 without going out there [...] Otherwise, we will not be able to enter the normal conditions like before," Muhadjir said.
As of Friday, Indonesia had seen 121,226 positive cases and 5,593 deaths because of the coronavirus. Across the globe the pandemic has affected over 1 billion students because of school shutdowns.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption to education in history and prolonged school closures could further entrench inequalities in access to learning, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday, underlining the need for “bold steps” to address the crisis.
Guterres said even before the pandemic a learning crisis had existed with more than 250 million children not in school.
“Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” he said.
A UN policy brief has called for action including the reopening of schools once local transmission of COVID-19 is under control. It also calls for greater investment in education, as low- and middle-income countries already faced an annual funding gap of $1.5 trillion prior to the pandemic.
“Education budgets need to be protected and increased,” Guterres said.
