Strengthening the Telecommunications Infrastructure for PJJ

In addition to competent and skillful teachers, the distance education (PJJ) policy requires equitable internet access for successful implementation.

Kompas/Priyombodo

Irfan, who has hearing impairment, uses sign language during a 30-minute daily online class on Wednesday (26/8/2020) from his house in Larangan, Tangerang municipality, Banten. His disability has not dampened Irfan’s enthusiasm for studying at the SLB Sumber Budi school for disabled children in South Jakarta.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The government’s plan to provide mobile data subsidies to teachers, lecturers, and students must be supported by a strong telecommunications infrastructure. To date, the implementation of the distance education (PJJ) policy in certain areas remains hampered by poor telecommunications networks, a shortage of mobile devices and poor adaptability of education technology among teachers.

As part of the program to support the provision of the mobile data subsidies, the Education and Culture Ministry’s director general of early childhood, primary and secondary education, Jumeri, has asked provincial education offices to instruct school principals to input their students’ mobile phone numbers to the ministry’s online base education database (Dapotik) before Monday (31/8/2020). On Tuesday, however, the ministry announced an extension to the submission deadline to Friday (11/9).

"If, during the September distribution [of the subsidy], some students still don’t have smartphones, they will receive the mobile data subsidy starting next month. The phone numbers [recorded] in the database may be changed if, for example, a number could potentially expire,” Jumeri said on Wednesday (2/9).

Also read: Make sure the Internet Subsidy Reaches Targeted Recipients

In addition to providing mobile data packages to teachers, lecturers and students, the government is also providing a mobile data subsidy of Rp 400,000 per month to each civil servant in the echelon I and II levels, and a monthly mobile data subsidy of Rp 200,000 to each civil servant in echelon III and below.

Meanwhile, the West Java provincial government is planning to provide free mobile data to 1.9 million students and teachers at elementary, junior high and senior high schools and 1.35 million students at pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) and universities. State-owned mobile network operator Telkomsel is also providing 3.25 million SIM starter kits with 10 gigabytes (GB) of mobile data in September 2020. The data packages are active through December and cost Rp 5,000 per month for 11 GB of mobile data.

"If the subsidized data packages are distributed for free (until December), a fund of Rp 50 billion will be needed. If this is approved by the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD), students will not need to pay [the monthly fee]," said West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil.

Also read: Solutions for Education

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Students of different grades wear masks and maintain physical distance as study together in a “pod” on Friday (28/8/2020), using the free wifi facility at the RW 05 community unit hall in West Kuningan, South Jakarta. The subdistrict offices provided free internet access to make it easier for the students to follow the online distance learning (PJJ) education policy during the Covid-19 health crisis.

Root problem untouched

Secretary-general Heru Purnomo of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) said that the deadline for submitting students’ phone numbers to the Dapodik system needed to be extended because each school had its own unique problems, such as a large student body, slow data collection, and the inadequate internet access to the Dapodik system.

Apart from this, the FSGI said that the mobile data subsidy policy did not touch upon the root problem of the PJJ policy, namely poor telecommunications infrastructure in certain areas. The government needed to strengthen the telecommunications infrastructure in remote areas that operators generally considered as economically unviable.

Learning resources are [now] abundant, both free and [subsidized]. The digital technology era makes this possible.

"If the telecommunications network was distributed equally, the new student registration and online distribution of operational assistance would also run smoothly. The government must look at equal infrastructure [development] as a long-term investment,” said Heru.

According to M. Ramli Rahim, who chairs the Indonesian Teachers Association, in addition to the unequal distribution of telecommunications facilities, other issues that needed addressing included the shortage of mobile devices among many students and the poor capability of teachers in providing attractive online learning activities.

"Learning resources are [now] abundant, both free and [subsidized]. The digital technology era makes this possible. The government should therefore facilitate teacher [training] so that they will be ready to enter the digital era," said Ramli.

Also read: Confusion Persists in School Enrollment

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Students use the free Jak WiFi internet facility provided by the Jakarta provincial administration to follow the online distance learning (PJJ) education policy on Wednesday (2/9/2020) at the RT 05/RW 02 community unit hall in Galur subdistrict, Johar Baru district, Central Jakarta.

House of Change program manager Darmanto of the Public Broadcasting Institution has suggested that if the government had enough funds, it could finance the production of educational content by the media, especially public broadcasters, with the content to be designed by teachers.

"Recruit teachers who are good at creating video-based learning programs. And recruit digital content creators who can produce interesting programs,” he said.

Also read: Students are Vulnerable to Contagion

Muhammad Hasan Chabibie, the acting head of the education ministry’s Data and Information Technology Center (Pusdatin), said that the ministry’s ICT-Based Learning (PembaTIK) department could be tasked with training teachers to be technologically proficient. This year, the PembaTIK had trained as many as 60,000 teachers.

Pusdatin accepts learning content from teachers through the Rumah Belajar (House of Learning) education website. To date, teachers have submitted 79,313 content in text, video, audio, animation, simulation, and questions to the website. (MED/KRN/TAM/ESA)