Student Vaccination Achievements Still Low, Jokowi Urged To Postpone Face-to-Face Schools

JAKARTA - The Coalition to Save Indonesian Children has urged President Joko Widodo to postpone limited face-to-face learning (PTM) in schools that are currently running.

The Coalition considers that face-to-face schooling should be postponed as long as the student's COVID-19 vaccination achievement is still low. As of October 2, national student vaccination has only reached 14 percent of the first dose and 9.98 percent of the second dose.

Then, the current vaccination coverage for teachers and education personnel have only reached 62.18 percent for the first dose and 38 percent for the second dose.

"The coalition demands that the President of the Republic of Indonesia and his ministers postpone face-to-face learning until the government ensures that all school populations according to their age groups are vaccinated and that the district/city level positivity rate is below 5 percent", said coalition member Natasha Devanand Dhanwani in a statement, Monday, 4 October.

Natasha said that vaccines are not the main weapon in suppressing the rate of transmission, but this can reduce the severity when contracting COVID-19, so it should be used as a condition for opening limited PTMs.

In addition, this LaporCovid-19 advocacy member also thinks that opening schools for 12-year-olds is very dangerous. This is because the potential for transmission of COVID-19 to children is quite high and it is feared that it will cause severity.

"The coalition also asks the government to postpone face-to-face learning for children under the age of 12 because there is no vaccination policy and the various impacts of COVID-19 on children, both during the positive confirmation period and after COVID-19", he said.

Continuing, the Head of Teacher Advocacy for the Education and Teacher Association (P2G), Iman Zanatul Haeri, said that the government's argument that it wanted to open schools immediately was based on premature assumptions.

One of them claims about the dropout rate which has increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Iman denied the Kemdikbudristek data. He said, the dropout rate was still higher the previous year, for example, 2018-2019 it reached 301,127 students, while 2019-2020 was lower at 157,166 students.

Iman admits there are problems during distance education (PJJ). However, this is also related to the poor guarantee of accessibility provided by the government.

"Instead of rushing PTM, the government needs to make a grand design of education in a health emergency, to answer the challenges ahead if it has to return to a situation of strict restrictions", said Iman.

For information, the Coalition to Save Indonesian Children consists of LaporCovid-19, LBH Jakarta, Education and Teacher Association (P2G), Center for Education Regulations and Development Analysis (Cerdas), YLBHI, LBH Banten People, and Surabaya Children Crisis Center (SCCC).