Danger Awaits In The Future If Face-to-face Schooling Is Not Implemented

JAKARTA - Minister of Education and Culture, Research and Technology Nadiem Makarim appealed to schools in several areas to conduct limited face-to-face meetings. He insisted on opening a school because students' cognitive learning loss was critical. So what is cognitive learning?

"Now our struggle is serious and it is clear that every time we discuss with other ministries our position is as fast and safe as possible because it has been too long. We have to see that the cognitive side of our child's learning loss is too critical and must be opened as soon as possible with strict health protocols," said Nadiem, during a working meeting with Commission X DPR RI, August 23.

For your information, face-to-face schools can already be held in PPKM levels 3, 2, and 1. The capacity is a maximum of 50 percent and can be done for 2 hours a day and takes place twice a week.

Nadiem insists on opening face-to-face schools is not without reason. According to him, online schooling for too long is a risk for Indonesia's young generation.

"I don't have to explain anymore what the risks are. We have seen a decline in learning achievement, many children drop out of school, especially women. In various areas, there are many learning losses that have permanent impacts," said Nadiem.

As is known if every student has a different skill. There are students who understand mathematics faster, while others have difficulty understanding it. This applies to other disciplines as well.

That is one of the roles of teachers in schools. As teachers understand more cognitive theory, they will have more ways to create an environment full of knowledge and strategies for nurturing each unique student.

Basically, the ability of cognition becomes the driving force of a person to realize and think about his thoughts. This is as a means to help them understand the theory or concept they are studying.

Meanwhile, cognitive learning itself, as quoted on the Western Governors University website, can help increase student motivation because it gives them new ways to understand their own way of thinking. Cognition is the key to unlocking knowledge and brain power that impacts students and enhances skills. So what exactly is cognitive learning?

Before answering it, it is important for us to know "metacognition". Metacognition is awareness of our thoughts and thought processes. The concept of knowing how we think is the basis for understanding cognitive learning.

This theory of cognition trains students to see their thinking and mental processes. In addition, from this cognitive learning we can know that cognitive thinking can be influenced by external and internal factors.

"If our cognitive processes work normally, it can be easier to learn. But if something goes wrong with cognitive learning, difficulties can occur," he wrote.

Between 2030 and 2040 Indonesia is predicted to reach the peak of the demographic bonus period. This occurs when the country's productive age population (age 15-64) will be larger than the non-productive age population (children and the elderly).

However, the ineffective implementation of learning from home in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to SMERU Research Institute Senior Researcher, Syaikhu Usman in his writings in The Conversation, could erase the opportunity to benefit from the demographic bonus. Those who are not optimal in their study period as they are today, will enter the world of work in 2035.

SMERU's research in 2020 noted that the learning process from home in Indonesia encountered many obstacles. Starting from the imbalance in access to online learning facilities to the imbalance in the ability of teachers.

Meanwhile, according to a World Bank study, predicting ineffective home learning causes the loss of student learning outcomes in Indonesia. Of course, these problems cannot be taken lightly.

"This widens the gap between students in Indonesia with the worst learning loss in the poor group. Thus, it exacerbates various problems of poor employment competence that already exist today," wrote Syaikhu.

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