Entering The Red Zone, Face-to-face School In Parigi, Central Sulawesi Postponed

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JAKARTA - The Education and Culture Office (Disdikbud) Parigi Moutong, Central Sulawesi, has postponed face-to-face learning activities. This is because the district is in the COVID-19 red zone.

"In accordance with local government policy, we have postponed face-to-face learning activities until an undetermined time limit," said Secretary of the Parigi Education and Culture Office, Moutong Sunarti, in Parigi, as reported by Antara, Monday, August 9.

He explained that the postponement was an effort by the government to avoid the transmission of a new type of corona virus in the midst of a situation where the spike in cases was still quite significant.

Therefore, said Sunarti, this postponement policy is considered appropriate to anticipate transmission in the education cluster.

In addition, one of his considerations was to postpone face-to-face learning because a number of teachers were exposed to the corona virus, and some of them even died, so this condition is convincing not to hold face-to-face learning.

He stated that face-to-face learning with reference to standard operating procedures (SOPs) could be implemented if the district's status was in the green and yellow safe zones.

"The readiness of educational units to face face-to-face learning is assessed according to health protocols, such as providing proper hand washing, providing hand sanitizer in every classroom and teacher's room and other equipment," said Sunarti. Moutong was ready to hold face-to-face learning activities, but the current situation and conditions did not allow the plan to be postponed.

In fact, he said, a number of schools that had been visited had formed special teams in schools and the elements had been fulfilled according to the instructions of the COVID-19 task force team.

He explained that the Parigi Moutong Education and Culture Office would continue to apply the distance learning method or use online as long as face-to-face is not allowed.

"We also admit that vaccination of teachers has not been maximized, because vaccines are one of the main requirements for holding face-to-face learning in schools, in addition to implementing health protocols," said Sunarti.