Students Will Return To School In January 2021 After Eight Months Of Home Study

Face-to-face school illustration (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - After eight months of students from the Early Childhood Education (PAUD), elementary and secondary levels studying at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government stated that teaching and learning activities in schools will be carried out again in the even semester of the 2020-2021 school year or to be precise in January 2021.

The decision to reopen schools in this even semester is not without reason. According to the Coordinating Deputy for Education and Religion of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK) Agus Sartono, this decision was taken because he saw various considerations including the negative impact of distance learning (PJJ).

Agus explained, there are a number of negative impacts in the distance learning system that has been carried out to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in schools. One of them is the high dropout rate because there are students who are asked by their parents to work to help the economy of families affected by the pandemic.

In addition, differences in access to quality distance learning also result in gaps in learning outcomes, especially for children who are socially and economically different. Not to mention the problem of pressure that makes students stress and the lack of teacher-student interaction.

"There were also many children who were trapped in cases of violence at home without being detected by the teacher," said Agus in a press conference broadcast online on the Ministry of Education and Culture's account, Friday, November 20.

Seeing this impact, the Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud) Nadiem Makarim announced that schools were allowed to resume teaching and learning activities. Decisions to open schools are also no longer based on zoning for the spread of COVID-19 but are made by local governments that are authorized by the central government.

"The risk zoning map no longer determines the granting of face-to-face learning permits but the regional government determines it so that it can select areas in a more detailed way," said Nadiem.

"This policy applies from the even semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. It will be in January 2021," he added.

Nadiem then explained that there are three parties that determine whether a school is opened or not, namely the local government and regional offices (Kanwil), the approval of the school principal, and the approval of parents representatives through the parents committee. If the three parties then do not allow the school to open, then the school is not allowed to open, "but if the three parties agree, the school may conduct face-to-face meetings," he said.

In addition, the parents of students also called Nadiem still have the right to determine whether or not their children need to study at school even if learning activities at school are carried out later. This is because learning activities at this school are not a necessity and their implementation will be returned to their respective parents.

Student capacity is limited to 50 percent

Although schools will be allowed to carry out teaching and learning activities in schools, Nadiem emphasizes that only 50 percent of students attend class. This restriction, he said, needed to be done so that students could maintain a distance between school and class.

"The maximum capacity is around 50 percent, which allows face-to-face learning from the average. So inevitably all schools have to do rotation or shifting," he said.

He then gave an example, for students at the Early Childhood Education (PAUD) level, one class is only allowed five students out of the usually 15 students. This restriction also applies to primary and secondary school students. If usually there are 36 students in one class, then in learning activities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic the number of students must be reduced to 18 people.

Likewise, the number of special school students (SLB) will be limited to one class. If usually eight people in one class, later in the next even semester, only five people will be allowed.

As for the condition of students who are allowed to come to school and carry out teaching and learning activities at school are those who are healthy. Meanwhile, students and teachers who are sick are not allowed to come to school.

Similar restrictions also apply to students and teachers whose families are sick or have even contracted COVID-19. This is done to prevent transmission of the virus in schools.

Apart from limiting the capacity of the number of students in the class, later on, schools that have carried out face-to-face teaching and learning activities will also not be allowed to carry out sports or extracurricular activities. In addition, later the canteen will also be prohibited from operating in order to prevent crowds.

"So children who have studied face-to-face when they finish studying immediately go home. Parents also cannot wait for students at school. Resting outside of class, meeting parents and students is not allowed. That means face-to-face learning is not returning to school like normal, "said Nadiem.

The task force reminds you to be careful

Despite inviting schools to reopen without having to look at the zoning for the spread of COVID-19, Head of the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo reminded local governments to be careful in deciding which schools can be reopened in the coming semester. Moreover, currently the threat of COVID-19 is still real.

"Because the threat of the spread of COVID-19 is still occurring, it is hoped that the regional government will consider it carefully before granting face-to-face learning permits and pay attention to the licensing mechanism and checklist," said Doni.

He also asked the regional head to hold an upgrading or briefing within one month before the start of the even semester of the 2020-2021 school year. "It is hoped that this upgrading can be a part of the simulation so that all existing regulations are known to be carried out and implemented as well as possible," said Doni.

In addition, the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reminded each region to monitor the development of the risk of COVID-19 transmission in their respective regions.

"If there are developments that lead to security risks, especially regarding health, security and safety issues for students and teachers, please temporarily stop them until the situation gets better," he concluded.