Clarification Of 1,296 School COVID-19 Clusters, Kemendikbudristek Admits Not Clusters, Data Not Verified

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) clarified the data findings of 1,296 COVID-19 clusters in schools which were previously released on its official website.

Director General of Early Childhood Education, Basic and Secondary Education (Paud Dikdasmen) Kemendikbudristek, Jumeri admitted there was a misperception regarding the COVID-19 cluster issue in face-to-face learning (PTM) in education units.

"We need to clarify the problem that there are 1,296 COVID-19 clusters in this school. There are misconceptions or misunderstandings regarding the issue of limited PTM clusters currently circulating in the community," said Jumeri in a webinar discussion, Friday, September 24.

First, Jumeri explained, 2.8 percent of education units that were previously declared to be a COVID-19 cluster were not clusters, but only to the extent that there were reports that the school had recorded COVID-19 cases.

"So, that 2.8 percent is not education cluster data. But it is data that shows the education unit that reported our application, through our website, that at the school there were residents who were infected with COVID-19," he said.

Second, data regarding the findings of COVID-19 cases in 15,429 students and 7,307 teachers came from unverified education unit reports.

"There are still a lot of errors and they haven't been verified. For example, someone inputted the number of positive teacher reports that exceeded the number of teachers in the school. That's not possible. It still happens in the data. So we need to clarify that We need to provide clarification on those numbers," said Jumeri.

Third, it is not necessarily the case that the transmission of COVID-19 in the education units listed on the Kemendikbudristek website is a school that implements PTM.

"A total of 46,500 educational units that reported are PTM and those who have not," he said.

Fourth, the data is not data on COVID-19 cases in schools during the implementation of Limited PTM during the PPKM leveling which was only running a few months ago. The data is an accumulation from last July 2020 when the government began to allow face-to-face learning in a number of regions.

"This figure is not the accumulation of the implementation of limited PTM after PPKM Level 1-3. It is an accumulation since July 2020 or the 2020/2021 school year until the 2021/2022 school year this September," he explained.

Furthermore, Jumeri said that despite the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the government would continue to open schools in areas for Limited PTM in areas that were declared likely to be safe from COVID.

"We know that our distance learning (PJJ) cannot be ideal. There are many obstacles in our PJJ. And this is our effort to be able to open PTM immediately by following the COVID level set by the government," he added.