West Papuan Student Online Schools Find Constraints

Students in Teluk Wondama Regency, West Papua (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Learning through the online system in Teluk Wondama Regency, West Papua, encountered network problems. In addition, not all students have quotas and smart devices or smart phones.

"For online learning, schools have budget difficulties. BOS funds cannot be used because BOS funds, according to the provisions, are only to finance eight priority activities, so we have proposed for assistance (from the local government) to support online and offline learning, "Head of the Hanok Mariai Youth and Sports Education Agency said in Antara, Monday, July 27.

School heads and education actors in the district asked local governments to allocate a budget to support learning during the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.

The requirement for students to learn from home (BDR) using online and offline learning methods applied during the COVID-19 pandemic is felt to be quite burdensome for schools and students.

Not only difficult, online and offline learning methods require a large amount of money. If you choose online learning, schools are faced with a condition where not all students have an Android device (handphone). Not to mention the cost for filling internet quota.

He stated that recently a joint meeting between school principals and the Wondama Bay Regency Covid-19 Task Force had been held at the Sasana Karya building, the Regent's office.

Principals and supervisors, said Hanok, conveyed a number of obstacles that had occurred in education at the meeting.

School Supervisory Coordinator (Korwas) Steven M on the previous occasion stated that the offline learning method with the module system also requires a large amount of money.

In addition to the cost of providing the modules, schools must also provide extra budgets for the transportation costs of teachers to visit students from house to house.

"If learning from home, especially for elementary schools, is quite difficult, teachers have difficulty teaching especially for grade 1 students. So we need money to be able to learn from home, we ask for policies from the local government," said the Head of PGRI Teluk Wondama.

A similar sentiment was also conveyed by the Head of the Regional School Management of the Christian Education Foundation (YPK) of Teluk Wondama Regency. He hopes that there will be a special policy from the Wondama Regency Government to help schools and students to be able to provide education during this pandemic.

Regional Secretary of Teluk Wondama who is also Secretary of Gustu Covid-19 Denny Simbar said his party would first review the suggestions from school principals. However, he hopes the school will continue to strive for the teaching and learning process to continue even though it is not in the form of face to face class.

"The teaching and learning process must continue, please look for the method that is considered the most suitable without face-to-face learning. We will discuss the matter of budget support first but I ask the Education Office to formulate an education policy during the COVID-19 emergency period, "said Simbar.