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Jokowi aims to vaccinate all teachers before July
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.
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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.
“We want to immediately return the children to school, but as long as it is safe from COVID-19,” Jokowi said during a podcast with Nadiem on Sunday evening, which was posted on YouTube.
The President said that even when schools began with limited in-person classes, everyone involved was still asked to strictly enforce health protocols. The government would also periodically review the policy for effectiveness.
“The important thing is, by the end of June, vaccinations for teachers and education staff must have been completed for the start of limited face-to-face learning in July,” Jokowi said.
UNICEF reported that only 279,806 schools, about 52 percent of all schools, from 514 districts or cities across the country reported their preparedness to reopen. As of March, at least 31,191 schools had started face-to-face learning across the country, the UN agency reported.
Teachers are among the 17 million public service workers prioritized for the second phase of state-led vaccinations. The Health Ministry does not provide specific data on how many teachers have been vaccinated, but about 8.4 million people, nearly half of the targeted group, have received their first jabs, while another 4.9 million have already gotten their second jab.
Nadiem said that once all teachers had been vaccinated, schools should be obliged to make limited face-to-face learning an option for parents who wish to send their children to school, as long as they feel comfortable.
Read also: School reopening could increase COVID-19 transmission: IDAI
"It will not be like a normal school. There will be no extracurricular activities and the [school] capacity will be kept to 50 percent with shift rotations. And the right [to send kids to school] ultimately lies with the parents,” he said.
“Right now some parents don’t even have the choice and they are facing difficulties, and that’s why, together with the Health Ministry, we are pushing local administrations and schools to speed up vaccinations.”
Previously, the Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) recommended against reopening schools, given an increase in the nationwide virus transmission and the discovery of various new variants of the virus since March.
A professor of children's health from the University of Indonesia, Soedjatmiko, said ideally that confirmed cases and deaths in a region have to decline for two consecutive weeks before schools could be considered for reopening.
“If the [number of] new cases continues to fluctuate, it is not the time to open schools,” he said, noting that even if vaccines do protect the teachers, they are still able to transmit the disease to students.
Indonesia reported 4,394 new cases and 144 new deaths on Sunday.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin reported on Monday that Indonesia had detected two cases of the Indian COVID-19 variant in Jakarta, along with previous discoveries of mutated viruses originating from South Africa and the United Kingdom, all of which are feared to be more transmissible.
“Basically, the key is to be disciplined in health protocols including avoiding crowds and remembering that even if you are vaccinated you still have the chance of getting infected,” National COVID-19 task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said.
