Only 2 Days Into School, Students In Padang Return To Online Learning

Head of the Padang City Education and Culture Office Habibul Fuadi. (ANTARA/Ikhwan Wahyudi)

PADANG - Only two days of face-to-face learning since October 4, 2021, the Padang City Government has re-implemented online learning starting October 6, 2021.

This is following up on the instructions of the Minister of Home Affairs which stipulates that Padang has the status of Enforcement of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) level 4.

"As of October 6, Padang has again implemented online learning for elementary and junior high school levels until October 18, 2021," said Head of the Padang City Education and Culture Office Habibul Fuadi in Padang, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, October 5.

According to him, this policy was taken because Padang was again set to have PPKM level 4 status, one of which was that the learning process had to be done online.

He explained that one of the indicators that causes Padang to still have PPKM level 4 is the vaccination coverage rate which is still below 45 percent.

"For provincial capitals, at least 45 percent can only be lowered to PPKM level 3," he said.

However, he has instructed the school to provide study consultations for students who have difficulty in online learning.

"In this case, schools can arrange schedules while still implementing health protocols," he said.

To resume face-to-face learning, the time will be announced later, but he asked the school to prepare health protocol facilities and infrastructure.

"Then vaccinate against COVID-19 for students aged 12 years and over," he said.

He hoped that parents would give permission for their children to be vaccinated as an effort to enforce health protocols and accelerate face-to-face learning.

"There are a lot of complaints from parents who want their children to go back to school soon, in West Sumatra, only Padang is the only one who is back online," he said.

Regarding the implementation of the vaccine, he asked the school to coordinate with the nearest health center.

He acknowledged that there were many requests from parents to learn face-to-face, but according to the central government's instructions, he had to temporarily return online and hoped to be able to return to face-to-face soon.

"Indeed, for children it will be difficult if they continue to study online, parents will too, but if this policy is not implemented, it means we are not following the policies of the central government," he said again.