TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Director-General of Early, Elementary, and Secondary Education of the Education Ministry, Jumeri, confirmed data of thousands of schools reporting COVID-19 transmission since the onset of the pandemic. “It's a data recapitulation since March 2020,” he told Tempo on Thursday, September 23.

Jumeri explained that based on the ministry's data as of September 2021, 45,284 schools, or 97.2 percent of the total 46,580 educational institutions, claimed to hold limited face-to-face learning (PTM) safely, while the rest 2.8 percent or 1,296 schools detected the virus infections.

He emphasized that protocols related to the COVID-19 clusters at schools are regulated in a joint ministerial decree (SKB) of four ministries. The rules included the closing of schools by local governments, stopping limited PTM, as well as conducting testing, tracing, and treatment if there are positive cases.

The ministry, he added, continued to coordinate with local governments in supervising and monitoring schools that implement limited on-site studies. As of September 19, only 42 percent of schools in regions under PPKM Level 3, 2, and 1 were reopened.

Jumeri assessed that local governments played a key role in the success of limited face-to-face learning at schools, “We really need support from the local government to give permission for education units at regions under PPKM levels 1-3 to implement limited PTM by, of course, complying with health protocols and rules according to the Home Affairs Ministerial Instruction on PPKM and the joint ministerial decree,” he said.

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