There Are Schools That Have Not Been Held Face-to-face, Minister Of Education And Culture: Ask The Governor, Why Is It Not Yet Open?

Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The government issued a Joint Decree (SKB) for four ministers regarding guidelines for implementing learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In content, the government requires educational institutions to carry out face-to-face learning (PTM) in the coming July.

Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud) Nadiem Makarim clarified that the central government has actually given the authority to open schools to local governments. In fact, he said, since January all schools have been allowed to hold face-to-face learning activities.

"So please ask each local government, regent, governor why it's not open even though it was opened in January," said Nadiem during Live Instagram with Youtuber Jerome Polin who was monitored Tuesday, March 30.

According to Nadiem, the government has encouraged vaccinations for teachers and other teaching staff. This is in accordance with the direction of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) who targets the teaching and learning process to return to normal or can be carried out face-to-face in the second semester of 2021.

"So teachers have been put into priority and the President also supports the 5.5 million teachers in June to July who have all been vaccinated, so those who are already vaccinated should be able to open schools immediately," said Nadiem.

Therefore, Nadiem hopes that the face-to-face learning process at schools can begin in July 2021.

"It's not my decision, but each regional government. So ask the regents and governors respectively," he said.

However, Nadiem reminded, schools that have been opened still have to limit all students and educators not to gather.

"But the face-to-face is limited. You can't hang out in the canteen, there's no extracurricular activities so it's still a hybrid model," he said.

Nadiem also understands that there are areas that have difficulty implementing the distance education process (PJJ). He suggested that schools in the region should immediately carry out face-to-face activities.

"I have pushed for regions that cannot do PJJ, let's go to school first," he said.

It is known that the Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) on Guidelines for Implementation of Learning After Vaccination for COVID-19 will be launched today, Tuesday 30 March.

The four ministers involved in the launch of the SKB today, namely Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi, and Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian.

Today's decree launch was realized after being postponed for almost a week. Previously, the SKB was planned to be issued today, Wednesday, March 24.

Several things were considered, among others, because during the pandemic the enormous impact on the implementation of education, especially because schools had to close to prevent the spread of the virus among students, educators and education personnel.