Indonesia Relooks Into Face-To-Face Learning Amid Soaring COVID-19 Cases

By Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar JAKARTA, Feb 3 (Bernama) -- As the number of daily COVID-19 reported cases in schools continues to see a steady increase, Indonesian authorities have launched a thorough assessment on the current face-to-face learning school session, locally known through the acronym PTM. President Joko Widodo has asked authorities in three provinces namely Banten, Jakarta and West Java, that recorded higher case numbers to evaluate the PTM implementation. Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, conveyed the request during a virtual meeting in East Kalimantan, on Monday held to evaluate the movement control order, commonly referred to in short as PPKM. “Be careful, I want to emphasize caution as active cases have increased… We must remain vigilant,” online media quoted him as saying. Indonesia reported 16,021 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, jumping from 274 cases recorded on January 1, fuelled by the Omicron variant, with five deaths related to the variant so far. Almost a month after the new school year began in Jakarta, 98 schools in the capital city have been shut down for five days because of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said the provincial government is monitoring the situation, and added that he did not dismiss the possibility of suspending PTM if the school community is at a heightened risk of contracting the virus. On Jan 3, the world's fourth-most populous country reopened 264,704 or 59 per cent of schools, involving 33,497,256 students with 100 percent capacity under strict conditions. The authorities decided this after 80 per cent of the teachers had received two doses of the vaccines, and 80 percent of students completed their first dose while 58 per cent of them were fully vaccinated. In Indonesia, school closures during the pandemic have led to worries about learning losses of the COVID-19 generation. While many governments around the world were weighing the health risks of reopening schools in December, UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore warned school closures should be a measure of last resort even as Omicron variant takes hold. Beyond being lost in learning, she said children have also lost the safety of school, daily in-person interactions with friends, access to healthcare, and, too often, their only nutritious meal of the day. “Governments must increase investments in digital connectivity to ensure no child is left behind,” she said in a statement. -- BERNAMA