Online Classes in the Middle of the Corona Pandemic Should Free the Learning Process - The Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) in DKI Jakarta will. PSBB is a restriction on certain activities for residents in an area suspected of being infected with the corona virus, in order to prevent the possibility of a wider spread of the virus.
Through the Regulation of the Minister of Health (Permenkes) of the Republic of Indonesia Number 9 of 2020, a number of regulations related to the implementation of the PSBB were stipulated, one of which was regarding school holidays. Teaching and learning activities in schools are temporarily suspended and replaced with effective media, at least for the next 14 days.
Before the DKI Jakarta PSBB was approved, a number of schools had already closed teaching and learning activities as an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. So that a number of learning processes at home with material from school and assisted by parents have been carried out.
Challenges of distance education and parenting assistance
However, a number of parents admitted that it was difficult to monitor their children's learning process at home, especially for those who also worked at home. One of the students' parents, Anandatie Augustiasih, said that the information regarding the system of transferring the teaching and learning process from school to home was not comprehensive.
''What I learned is only international standard schools that apply discipline and online classes with a time that fits the schedule. If there is no national scale, it will be returned to the parents. Even though parents have problems with wfh (work from home) so they can't monitor it properly,'' said Anandatie.
The same thing was expressed by parents of students from Makassar, Lina Herlina, who had accompanied their children to study at home for at least two weeks. According to him, the quality of children's education depends on the quality of the teachers. He gave an example that there are teachers who are able to send video samples of subjects for their children to work on at home, and there are those who can only explain assignments, then ask the students to do them.
"In the end, children just do it and don't understand what it means. In this era, in the digital era, the quality of teachers must also be adequate," he said.
Not to mention the technical problems, as experienced by a parent from Magelang, Aminatun, when his cell phone was damaged and he didn't have an internet quota.
Distance education should free up the learning process
To DW Indonesia, education observer Budi Trikorayanto said that parents should find effective ways for the learning process at home, considering that previously the teaching and learning process was carried out by teachers and students at school.
''Parents should also be guided, so distance learning, independent learning must be oriented mainly to the interests and talents of the child, to the local context, to the child's environment. So it's not oriented to competency standards that they have to go through according to curriculum standards, that's not it,'' Budi said to DW Indonesia.
Budi added, referring to the Circular Letter of the Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud), the learning process is no longer fixated on the target of grade promotion curriculum. According to him, this is still difficult for teachers to translate, most of whom still see the basic competencies that children must learn.
But Budi assessed that the situation and condition of education in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic had opened the eyes of many people that the direction of education should be towards the 4.0 education system, namely distance education which is no longer tied to curriculum standards, but rather develops the interests and talents of students and frees the learning process. .
''So we will see a very big change in the world of education, which liberates learning, and liberates. There will be chaos as a learning process from that change, and it continues. However, the demands of the times are indeed in that direction (education 4.0),'' explained Budi to DW Indonesia.
Communication barriers in remote areas
Meanwhile in Asmat district, Papua, the Principal of SD Darussalam Agats, Joni Effendi told DW Indonesia that communication is the main obstacle in the teaching and learning process at home. Joni said the exchange of short messages could be sent after a few minutes to two hours later.
''The obstacle faced by teachers in general, especially the communication line between teachers and students, is the lack of online communication and of course via SMS, which sometimes also our network data packets are late,''said Joni.
Responding to the difficulty of accessing information in remote areas and the availability of effective media for the learning process, the Head of the Communication Bureau of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ade Erlangga Masdiana, said that schools need to find other alternatives to overcome problems in the learning process at home.
''Actually, during this health emergency, distance education (learning) does not always have to be with the strength of the internet network or good telecommunications infrastructure. The important thing is that the implementation of education which is the right of students is fulfilled," said Ade in a written message to DW Indonesia, Wednesday (08/04)
Referring to the Circular of the Minister of Education and Culture Number 4 of 2020, regarding the implementation of education policies in the emergency period of the spread of COVID-19, Ade said that what must be considered is how to provide meaningful education.
In Singapore it is more structured
Meanwhile, Eveline Yousefa, an Indonesian citizen (WNI) who now lives in Singapore, said that the learning process at home in that country is more structured. All materials and assignments have been given prior to the implementation of the home study regulations.
''Quite complete because there is an application 'Parents Gateway' here. I just read a message from the teacher that tomorrow there will be a zoom at what time it will be updated for tomorrow,'' Eveline said to DW Indonesia.
Eveline added that when the COVID-19 outbreak began to spread in Singapore, the school had asked all parents to fill in whether they had computer or laptop facilities at home.
''Last week, children who do not have can still go to school. So there are teachers who still come to school but if they are full now, except for those whose parents work in essential services, they can still go to school. But for my child's class, I saw it on zoom earlier, it seemed like everyone was at home," he explained.
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