"We have postponed face-to-face learning in Bangka district, Tanjung Pandan sub-district, and Sijuk because of the high potential for COVID-19 transmission," head of Bangka Belitung Islands province's Education Office, M. Sholeh, said in Pangkalpinang on Friday.
Following a joint decision by four ministers — the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister, Religious Affairs Minister, Health Minister, and Home Affairs Minister — regarding the Guidelines for the Implementation of Face-to-Face Learning, attendance in schools has been limited to a maximum of 50 percent and face-to-face learning is only being applied in areas with level 3 and 2 community activity restrictions policy, he informed.
The postponement of face-to-face learning in Bangka district is due to the status of level 4 community activity restrictions, he said. A similar decision was made for Tanjung Pandang sub-district, Belitung district, and Sijuk sub-district, East Belitung district because the Delta variant of COVID-19 was found in the two regions, Sholeh explained.
"We have implemented limited face-to-face learning in level 3 and 2 areas as well as areas that do not have COVID-19 cases of the Delta variant," he remarked.
He explained that the face-to-face learning method has not been wholly implemented by schools.
Schools are continuing to conduct online learning, because attendance of students has been capped at 50 percent of the room capacity for face-to-face learning, and the curriculum used has also been tweaked according to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sholeh said.
"Since this disaster occurred, schools have conducted online learning and there are still many areas that face problems, such as the signal being out of reach, and several other problems," he elaborated.
Face-to-face learning is a priority in order to improve the quality of the young human resources, he added.
"Yes, even so, we must ensure that the steps taken are sufficient to protect our children and parents at home from COVID-19, by implementing strict procedures during face-to-face learning," Sholeh remarked.
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Translator: Aprionis, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Suharto
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