Jokowi Allows Face-to-face Learning at Schools Two Days a Week

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Face-to-face learning at schools will resume in the new academic year in July 2021. In a limited meeting this afternoon, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo emphasized that limited on-site studies must be held under extra care. Among them, schools' learning and teaching activities can only be done two days a week with a maximum study time of two hours.

“So there must be only two days of face-to-face learning in a week at maximum. Two hours each day. And only 25 percent of the number of students are allowed in one class,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained about the results of the meeting in a press conference today, June 7.

Budi also asserted that allowing children to return to school was the parents’ decision to make. “Our job is to ensure that all teachers must be vaccinated before school begins, so we ask for help from regional heads to prioritize [COVID-19 vaccines for] teachers,” he added.

Previous reports suggested that Education, Culture, and Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim targeted all schools would carry out face-to-face learning activities starting July 2021 under strict health protocols. Students will attend classes in rotation; some will undergo face-to-face learning at school while the rest will via online learning.

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) disclosed its monitoring results last Sunday on the back-to-school trial (PTM) that 79.54 percent of schools were ready to hold face-to-face learning activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read: Jakarta Yet to Receive Negative Reports on Face-to-face School Trials

DEWI NURITA