Kemendikbudristek Clarifications After Finding 1,269 School COVID-19 Clusters That Make A Upheaval

JAKARTA - Some time ago, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) released findings stating that 1,296 schools were declared to be COVID-19 clusters.

This is known from a survey conducted to 46,500 schools, reported by the head of the education unit. These findings were released on the official website of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

This finding is shocking. In fact, the validity of the findings is doubtful. For example, the Ministry of Education and Culture released 25 schools in DKI Jakarta Province that became COVID-19 clusters.

However, based on a search by the DKI Provincial Government, it turns out that the data for the 25 COVID-19 clusters was taken from a survey conducted on school respondents. This cluster was not determined based on the results of the DKI Health Office's surveillance of positive cases of COVID-19.

The DKI Education Office found that of the 25 schools declared to be in the COVID-19 cluster, only 2 schools were included in the 610 schools that took part in the limited PTM phase 1, starting on August 30, 2021, namely SMP Cindera Mata Indah and SMKS Yadika 2 Jakarta.

Until finally, Kemendikbudristek clarified its findings. Director General of Early Childhood Education, Basic and Secondary Education (Paud Dikdasmen) Kemendikbudristek, Jumeri admitted there was a misperception regarding the COVID-19 cluster issue in face-to-face learning (PTM) in education units.

"We need to clarify the problem that there are 1,296 COVID-19 clusters in this school. There are misconceptions or misunderstandings regarding the issue of limited PTM clusters currently circulating in the community," said Jumeri, Friday, September 24.

First, Jumeri explained that 1,296 or 2.8 percent of the education units previously declared to be a COVID-19 cluster were not clusters, but only to the extent that there were reports that the school had recorded COVID-19 cases.

"So, that 2.8 percent is not education cluster data. But it is data that shows the education unit that reported our application, through our website, that at the school there were residents who were infected with COVID-19," he said.

Second, data regarding the findings of COVID-19 cases in 15,429 students and 7,307 teachers came from unverified education unit reports.

"There are still a lot of errors and they haven't been verified. For example, someone inputted the number of positive teacher reports that exceeded the number of teachers in the school. That's not possible. It still happens in the data. So we need to clarify that We need to provide clarification on those numbers," said Jumeri.

Third, it is not necessarily the case that the transmission of COVID-19 in the education units listed on the Kemendikbudristek website is a school that implements PTM. "A total of 46,500 educational units that reported are PTM and those who have not," he said.

Fourth, the data is not data on COVID-19 cases in schools during the implementation of Limited PTM during the PPKM leveling which was only running a few months ago. The data is an accumulation from last July 2020 when the government began to allow face-to-face learning in a number of regions.

"This figure is not an accumulation of the implementation of a limited PTM after PPKM Levels 1 to 3. It is an accumulation since July 2020 or the 2020/2021 school year until the 2021/2022 school year this September," he added.

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