How The Ministry Of Education And Culture Anticipates The Spread Of COVID-19 Clusters In Schools

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JAKARTA - Acting Head of the Bureau of Cooperation and Public Relations of the Ministry of Education and Culture and Research and Technology, Anang Ristanto, emphasized that his party prioritized the health and safety of the citizens of the education unit, while at the same time prioritizing the rights of students.

He said this was following the findings of the COVID-19 cluster in schools when opening face-to-face learning (PTM) in a number of areas.

According to the Joint Decree (SKB) of the 4 Ministers, Anang said, if there is a transmission of COVID-19 in schools, PTM activities must be stopped and distance learning (PJJ) is carried out.

"Of course, school clusters are highly avoided by all parties. In the 4 ministerial decree it is very clear that if there is a COVID-19 cluster, the education unit must close the PTM and replace it with PJJ, while carrying out tests, tracing and treatment by the COVID-19 Task Force. 19 in SP (education unit, ed)," Anang told VOI, Thursday, September 23.

To anticipate the expansion of school clusters, the Ministry of Education and Culture and Research and Technology appealed to schools in the PPKM area level 1,2,3 to complete the infrastructure needs according to the checklist and pass the results of verification/permitted by the local government.

The Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology also advised education stakeholders to tighten the checklist submitted by education units.

Second, tightening the implementation of health programs in 4 locations, namely home, departure, school, and return. Third, encourage all stakeholders to accelerate the vaccination of educators and education personnel (CAR), and continue with students aged 12-17.

"Fourth, exemplary and internalizing the benefits of the 5M health program discipline. We also invite all parties to support the implementation of strict health protocols for the implementation of PTM in schools so that we can catch up with learning or learning loss," explained Anang.

In addition, he continued, it also needs to be mobilized massively and structured with strict health protocols.

Anang also confirmed that the data listed is data from the Ministry of Education and Culture website. However, he said, it still needs to be verified.

It is known, the Ministry of Education and Culture's website discloses data about the Corona cluster during face-to-face learning (PTM) in Jakarta. On the site it is stated that there are 25 clusters during PTM in Jakarta.

Regarding the data on positive cases of COVID-19 during PTM in Jakarta, it is listed on the Ministry of Education and Culture website school.data.kemdikbud.go.id.

On that page there is a PTM index and a PTM ready index. There are also PTM infographics, constraints infographics, and cluster infographics.

Data on Corona cases during PTM is in the cluster infographic section. The data source is from the School Survey application which was taken as of September 22, 2021.

Still from that page, data shows that there are 25 school clusters in Jakarta out of a total of 900 school respondents. In detail, as many as 227 educators and education staff (PTK) and 241 students (PD) were positive for COVID-19.

The site can also view cluster data in other provinces. If on a national scale, there are a total of 1,302 clusters in PTM.