Face-to-face instruction will start as of 1 January 2021 under strict hierarchical licensing. The safety of students will be the top priority and protocol readiness is nonnegotiable.
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Face-to-face instruction will start as of 1 January 2021 under strict hierarchical licensing. The safety of students will be the top priority and protocol readiness is nonnegotiable.
The plan to reopen schools for direct instruction is regulated under a Joint Decree issued by the Education and Culture Minister, the Religious Affairs Minister, the Health Minister and the Home Minister on Guidelines for the Organization of Study in the 2020/2021 School Year. The school reopenings will no longer follow Covid-19 transmission/infection zoning requirements, but will be hierarchically realized by the granting of licenses from regional administrations/regional offices/Religious Affairs Ministry offices, followed by permits from educational units and students’ parents.
This regulation is in response to debates arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Remote learning is described as facing many constraints and feared to cause setbacks in students’ educational quality. Other circles have the apprehension that if direct instruction is resumed, it will increase the risk of Covid-19 transmission and endanger the safety of students, teachers, educational personnel and also families.
Some parents staged a demonstration in California to demand school reopenings.
This problem of course is not only faced by Indonesia. Time magazine in its September 2020 edition also analyzed the issue. Some parents staged a demonstration in California to demand school reopenings. “School is essential,” so was written on one of the posters they carried. Marchers in New York protested school reopenings, “No school until it’s safe”.
The four ministerial joint decree’s guidelines allow face-to-face instruction but no obligation is imposed. Here the wisdom and seriousness of all decisionmakers are required to ascertain the preparedness of regional administrations, students’ parents and especially schools in complying with Covid-19 health protocols.
The World Health Organization (WHO) requires that schools check the number of new confirmed cases in the school vicinity, which is 1 per 100,000, so that transmission can be controlled. The confirmed case ratio should also be less than 5 percent within two successive weeks. Regional administrations need to confirm the data and transparently convey them to relevant schools and also parents.
The guidelines for school reopenings in the Covid-19 pandemic compiled by Children’s Mercy are very detailed. Teachers, students and visitors have their respective protocols. Transportation to school, drivers and the type of transportation used are also specified. Extra face masks are definitely available to make up for those forgotten by children. The use of sanitizers is ensured when sneezing, coughing as well as preparing and consuming food.
Children’s behavior, from entering classrooms, learning inside, sports training, breaks to return home from school, are also arranged and controlled. All this is done for the sake of guaranteeing that direct instruction will not sacrifice students’ safety. The safety of students constitutes the supreme law. Get prepared!