Indonesia schools start cautious reopening after devastating coronavirus wave | Inquirer News

Indonesia schools start cautious reopening after devastating coronavirus wave

/ 03:42 PM August 30, 2021

indonesia school reopening

An employee wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) sprays disinfectant after a class as schools reopen on a trial basis after the government extended restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Jakarta, Indonesia, August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s capital Jakarta reopened 600 of its schools on Monday as coronavirus restrictions eased, though a teacher federation urged caution and warned of clusters in classrooms caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Jakarta’s infection rate has dropped, authorities said, from a peak last month that saw Indonesia become Asia’s coronavirus epicenter, with more than 4 million cases and 131,000 fatalities overall.

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Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said 610 of 10,000 schools deemed safe had opened at 50% capacity in a resumption of a trial that started in April.

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“The conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic are much more under control,” he said on Instagram.

Vaccinations are not mandatory for at-school learning, Anies has said, adding that 91% of children aged 12-18 and 85% of educators have been fully inoculated. Nearly 70% of Jakarta’s 10 million population have been vaccinated.

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Zhafira Tsamara Ufaira Azza, 6, was excited to be back at school, where students will rotate with one day per week in class and the rest online at home.

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“I got to meet my friends and teachers,” she said.

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Mother Endang Sugiarti, 35, said she was still worried about the Delta variant.

“But for my daughter’s progress and education, I dared to try it first,” she said.

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Education Minister Nadiem Makarim last week called for school reopening to be accelerated to try to recover lost ground.

“There’s a decrease in study targets, lots of children quit school, especially girls in some regions,” he said.

“There’s a learning loss with permanent impacts.”

But Heru Purnomo, of The Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations, said broadening the reopening could be risky.

According to official data, about 1% of Indonesian coronavirus deaths and 13% of its cases have been minors.

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“It could create new clusters…it could add to the death of children,” he told Reuters.

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TAGS: COVID-19, Education, Health, Indonesia

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