Once again, children become victims in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic
March 15 2022 – The re-introduction of limited face-to-face learning with a maximum capacity of 100% in areas with PPKM levels 1 and 2 without a thorough evaluation shows that children's health and safety has not been a priority in handling this pandemic. Moreover, currently cases are still high and the daily positivity rate has reached 10% or exceeds the safe limit of 5%.
PRESS RELEASE
Once again, children become victims in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic
March 15, 2022 – The re-introduction of limited face-to-face learning with a maximum capacity of 100% in areas with PPKM levels 1 and 2 without a comprehensive evaluation shows that children's health and safety has not been a priority in handling this pandemic. Moreover, currently cases are still high and positivity rate daily reaches 10% or exceeds the safe limit of 5%.
Even though face-to-face learning is important for children's future, the risks must also be taken into account and mitigated. Face-to-face learning that ignores the risk of Covid-19 actually has the potential to rob children of their right to receive a safe education, in addition to increasing the risk of transmission in the community. As many researchers have reported, apart from being infected and experiencing severity due to Covid-19, children can also experience long Covid.
Health Protocol Violations Are Difficult to Avoid
Face-to-face learning with 100% student capacity will make it difficult to implement health protocols, especially if adequate infrastructure and minimal supervision are not provided. Citizen reports received by LaporCovid-19 from January 1 2022 to March 12 2022 were dominated by violations of health protocols in education units with 163 reports.
The violations reported were quite varied, ranging from not carrying out temperature checks, not having enough hand washing facilities, to using masks and keeping a distance that was less than optimal. The lack of awareness and collective commitment as well as the absence of regular supervision means that violations of health protocols in the school environment are carried out openly and are considered normal.
Minimal Handling of Covid-19 in the School Environment
During the period of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the last few weeks, we found that many educational units were unprepared and did not have a handling mechanism if a confirmed positive case of Covid-19 occurred in the school environment. This condition is exacerbated by the tendency to ignore school residents who are infected with Covid-19 and continue face-to-face learning without any further treatment, especially tracing close contacts and further examination. Many schools also do not carry out routine testing of school residents to detect cases early.
Until now, at least 47,489 educational units have not been able to access health service facilities, such as health centers, clinics, hospitals, and others. Meanwhile, 2,626 educational units reportedly do not yet have a task force team for handling Covid-19 at the educational unit level. This proves that there are still many educational units1 who are not really ready to handle Covid-19 as a whole. Apart from that, through reports submitted to LaporCovid-19, we found that schools rarely disclose Covid-19 cases that occur in their educational unit area.
Child Safety Neglected, Child Vaccination Still Low
As of January 1 2022, LaporCovid-19 has collected information from various media in Indonesia and found at least 1,522 residents of educational units who were infected with Covid-19 due to transmission in schools.
In the midst of a high risk of infection, vaccination coverage for children aged 6-11 years is still relatively low. As of March 11 2022, there are at least 13.5 million children who have not received the full dose of vaccine. If the complete dose of vaccine has not been given to children, the level of vulnerability and death will also increase. Children also have the potential to experience serious complications, namely multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated with Covid-19 (MIS-C) and complications Long Covid-19 others that have an impact on the performance and health of body organs in the future.
Based on the issues above, we from the Civil Society Coalition for Education during the Pandemic encourage the government to:
- The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of face-to-face learning, especially the readiness of educational units in handling Covid-19, in collaboration with the local municipal/district Education Office.
- The Central Government and Regional Government implement monitoring and regular supervision of the implementation of face-to-face learning in all schools holding PTM, in collaboration with the local Education Office. This includes urging schools to be transparent regarding COVID-19 cases in their schools so that close contacts can then be traced, examined and treated.
- The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology must ensure that all policies regarding face-to-face meetings are based on field data and the latest scientific data on the impact of COVID-19 on children's health and development.
- The risk of Covid-19 transmission in schools must be prevented and anticipated with the basics of pandemic control, such as implementing health protocols and supporting facilities, as well as strong surveillance. These efforts must continue to be evaluated to avoid risks that could endanger children and the wider community.
Best regards,
Civil Society Coalition for Education during the Pandemic
Contact Person:
Yemiko Happy – 085161061339
1 See Ministry of Education and Culture, (2022). Education Unit Teaching and Learning Process Readiness Dashboard during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Can be accessed via: https://school.data.kemdikbud.go.id/kepsianbelajar/dashboard#kb
