Schools in Indonesia-Malaysia Border Area Reopen during Covid-19 Pandemic

The principal doubts school reopening

The principal of SMP 1 state junior high school, Lumbis Muhammad Idrus, expressed doubt about the school reopening even though he had recommendations from the Department of Education, Health Agency, and the Nunukan Covid-19 Task Force.

“It is still a pandemic, of course, we are worried and a little afraid too. That is why schools are very strict in imposing health protocols. We create a ‘shift study’ involving 18 students per shift,” Idrus said.

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His school has 500 students and 21 teachers. With this total number of students, Idrus admitted that he was overwhelmed to teach them as there is a limited number of teachers. The teachers have to teach 28 classes.

With the implementation of shift study, each teacher has to work double the normal working hours. Not to mention another issue of poor students who live in remote areas. The teachers have to visit them as they don’t have mobile phones and live far from the school.

Students who have mobile phones, he added, will be given assignments online. Therefore, the teachers will only visit the houses of students who don’t have mobile phones. “This will need extra efforts and time as geographical conditions in the Lumbis sub-district are quite difficult and the students’ houses are far apart from one another,” he said.

(Writer: Ahmad Zulfiqor | Editor: Teuku Muhammad Valdy Arief)

Source: https://regional.kompas.com/read/2020/09/25/21093401/sekolah-di-perbatasan-ri-malaysia-mulai-dibuka-untuk-belajar-tatap-muka?page=all.