"The first is part of a series of implementations of Mr. President's directive and the order of the Head of State Intelligence Agency to carry out vaccinations against specific targets by using specific methods," Chief of the BIN Office in Yogyakarta Brigadier General Dr. Andry Wibowo said at the Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School on Thursday.
The specific target of the program was students, and the method used was door-to-door, he informed. The vaccination program was part of a series of programs implemented by the BIN Office in Yogyakarta since some time ago, he said.
"Today (vaccinations will be provided) at the Sunan Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School, then house-to-house in the surrounding community. If the activity plan here is (to inoculate) eight thousand students, today we aim for 500 people; (if we do it) two times it will be a thousand. (This is being done) while (we are) waiting for the distribution of vaccines through the State Intelligence Agency channel," he added.
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The BIN Office in Yogyakarta has inoculated 34 thousand students out of a total of 356 thousand students, as well as 10 percent of Indonesian students in Yogyakarta, he informed.
He said that Islamic boarding school students have been prioritized for vaccines because they are covered by two education dimensions, namely the national education dimension of elementary, junior high and high school, and the dimension of education under the Religious Affairs Ministry.
"Islamic boarding schools are part of our education cluster, where there are educators and students. So it is just the matter of title. In middle and high schools, there are students, but here, the (Islamic boarding schools) students study in special chambers, and general education just reinforces the religious values," he said.
Head of the COVID-19 task force at Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School, Azka Syabana said that Islamic boarding schools were very grateful and welcomed the vaccination program hosted by State Intelligence Agency, as it was reviewed by President Joko Widodo in person.
"In addition to physical vaccination or injection, it also strengthens the children, support for children, because children during this pandemic are completely quarantined in Islamic boarding schools. They cannot be visited, cannot go out, cannot go home, except once every year for Eid. " he informed.
Students of the Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School had been waiting for the vaccination program for some time amid ever-increasing cases of COVID-19, he added.
He said he expected all eight thousand students of the school to be vaccinated under the program.
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Translator: Hery Sidik, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Suharto
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