The implementation of health protocols outside schools and the rate of community cases also determine whether it is safe to reopen schools.
By
Kompas Team
·5 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The plan to reopen schools still poses a great risk to student safety. To ensure that schools are truly safe from Covid-19, all implementing conditions for the health protocols must be met and risk mitigation strengthened.
The emergence of transmission clusters at schools in a number of regions trialing limited in-class learning (PTM) shows that the health protocol infrastructure at schools is inadequate in terms of readiness. The implementation of health protocols outside schools and the rate of community cases also determine whether it is safe to reopen schools.
Through a joint agreement (SKB) involving four ministers, the government has provided guidance for implementing limited in-class learning during the pandemic. However, the four-minister SKB does not yet provide detailed requirements for a study on regional capacity to respond to the effects of limited in-class learning, including risk mitigation.
The monitoring results from the Indonesia Ombudsman’s Jakarta office on limited PTM trials in Bogor regency and Jakarta showed a lack of capacity in risk mitigation. Schools were reopened without prior swab tests for students, teachers, and education staff, and only relied on physical observations, including scanning body temperature.
"It is difficult to ensure that the limited PTM does not cause transmission in the pilot schools because there is no validation method," said the head of Indonesia Ombudsman Jakarta representative office, Teguh P. Nugroho, when contacted in Jakarta on Sunday (2/5/2021).
In addition, it was necessary to study schools’ capacity to hold limited PTM, including mitigation in the occurrence of new school clusters or clusters of new Covid-19 variants at schools.
Therefore, before local administrations opened more schools, the Indonesia Ombudsman Jakarta office recommended that swab tests be conducted for participants of the limited PTM trials to determine their impact. In addition, it was necessary to study schools’ capacity to hold limited PTM, including mitigation in the occurrence of new school clusters or clusters of new Covid-19 variants at schools.
"The local administrations must also ensure the ability of supervisors from the [local] education agency and regional offices of the Religious Affairs Ministry to ensure that all health protocols are implement properly during the PTM," said Teguh.
Considering the high rate of Covid-19 transmission, the Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) does not recommend reopening schools, even at limited capacity. Reopening schools poses a high risk, because the weekly Covid-19 positivity rate was still around 18 percent and community implementation of the health protocols still needed improving.
Data from the Covid-19 Handling Task Force showed that 205,764 children aged 0-18 years have been confirmed positive for Covid-19, or 12.3 percent of all cases in Indonesia. The death toll among children totaled 593, or 1.3 percent of all Covid-19 deaths.
IDAI general chairman Aman Bhakti Pulungan said on Saturday (2/5) that the number of Covid-19 cases in Indonesian children continued to increase. At the same time, minimal tracing and testing were being conducted on school-aged children.
"Starting [in-class learning] at schools will increase the risk of Covid-19 transmission for children. The public needs to understand the seriousness of the current situation. With the very limited capacity of our health services, starting from testing capacity to human resources, and to treatment services, it is feared that we will become overwhelmed if cases [among children] increase," he said.
July is not set (for implementing limited PTM), but rather for preparing for a trial.
According to Umar, the director of Curriculum, Facilities, Institutions and Madrasah Students under the Religious Affairs Ministry’s Islamic Education Directorate General, the limited PTM in July 2021 would still depend on community-level conditions of the pandemic. "July is not set (for implementing limited PTM), but rather for preparing for a trial. If the condition is safe, there is no escalation of cases, students can return to PTM," he said.
Umar added that the requirements for the limited PTM were nonnegotiable. Schools must meet all requirements before they may reopen. Discipline in implementing the health protocols must become a new culture, and mitigating community transmissions also determined when schools could be reopened safely.
Dilemma
The limited PTM policy continues to raise doubts and concerns. On the one hand, the public feels that online learning is ineffective, but on the other, they are still worried about Covid-19 transmission in the school setting.
These uncertainties were apparent in a Kompas R&D survey in April that involved 1,200 respondents. Responses regarding the government’s PTM policy were almost evenly split between those expressing concern (50.1 percent) and those that did not (49.2 percent).
The majority of respondents responded positively to the limited PTM policy. However, the majority of respondents (84.2 percent) emphasized strict conditions, while 13.5 percent of respondents hoped that the government would postpone the policy.
President Joko Widodo, during a podcast with Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim to mark National Education Day 2021, urged thorough preparation for the PTM.
"With full effort, we will send the children back to school, but is safety from Covid-19 infection must be ensured. The health protocols must be strictly enforced and evaluated by each region. After that, further policies will be decided," said the President. (IKA/TAN/ELN/MED)