Covid-19 Outbreak and Premature Education Revolution in Indonesia
The online education in Indonesian seems to be a failure as many schools in a few regions are technically inactive. Many students cannot follow the remote education system due to lack of proper devices, the internet coverage problem, and not possessing enough technology skill. Some teachers also get the same problem as the student, as one of them claimed: “Many teachers do not know how to use the video conference platform and have no idea how to assess the students since establishing the connection with them remotely is impossible”. Here is the story of a chaotic education system during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.
Indonesia is an archipelago consisted of roughly 18,000 islands and seven major islands, and this archipelago is not immune from the COVID-19 outbreak. This outbreak affects the country differently than others due to its geography. It can be assumed that controlling the citizens in the archipelago states is more difficult than continental countries.
Regarding Indonesia, the problem could be worse than the other archipelagos such as the Philippines or Japan. Indonesia has more major islands with a significant size compared to the Philippines and Japan. Those major islands have cities and the distance between them is also quite sufficient to be said vastly far, as an example the distance between Jakarta, the capital, to a major city in other islands, Makassar takes roughly two and half hours by flight.
This fact shows how vulnerable Indonesia is to a turmoil if distance learning is applied. Before the outbreak takes place, Indonesia’s education system in the school level was relying on the on-campus system. Online learning that is arranged by the school or integrated online learning is rarely found in Indonesia.
There are several causes, besides the education quality gap between regions, the lack of internet coverage to the rural areas makes online learning more difficult because of its cruciate. Additionally, the teacher ability to hold online learning is in doubt.
While the coronavirus pandemic happens, the central government switches all offices and schools to be remotely operated. This policy affects the schools regardless their location in the urban or the rural area. This means possessing the proper devices and fast internet access becomes necessary for all students, teachers, officers and parents. At this point, the problem worsens, roughly half of Indonesian education stakeholder cannot afford for online education.
The Urban School and The Rural School
Probably, the problem is quite simpler for urban schools because its location supports online learning requirements. It is evident that the urban people easily access the internet and likely to have the proper device, at least the smartphone, and likely capable to operate the devices. This also includes the students and the teacher, perhaps the exception is only for elderly people.
In contrast, computer, smartphone, and tablet are not common amongst the rural students, yet they apparently have insufficient ability to operate those devices. Furthermore, due to its location, Indonesian internet providers have not done their programme: planting the service in the rural area, and according to trading economics about 44.68% of Indonesia population live in the countryside. Consequently, the remote education that central government expects is close to the failure rather the success, and this is occurring now in Indonesia.
Some teachers and students are complaining about the current online learning system which is held by the creativity and the capability of the school. As it was mentioned before, the quality gap determines the system they used for instruction, assignment, and assessment. Most schools, regardless of their location in the urban area or the rural area, are using chatting platform such as Telegram or WhatsApp for instruction, assignment, and assessment. There is no peer online class at all by using the notable platform such as Zoom or Cisco WebEx. Yet the lack of internet, devices, and technology literacy deteriorate the circumstance.
Ahmad Ari Sandih, a secondary school teacher in Bener Meriah regency claimed that the school in which he is teaching does not apply the online system at all due to several reasons. Bener Meriah itself is located in the Gayo Highland, most of its population are coffee farmers, do not possess devices and live in an area where the internet service is absent. He reported that almost all students are computer illiterates and their parents as well. This condition is also experienced by majority school in Bener Meriah. As a temporary alternative, they manage to send books and tasks instruction on paper to each student’s home, then the assessment will be reported to a focal point by chatting platform.
The same condition also occurs in the urban area, but slightly different. Nisa is an Indonesian language teacher in a secondary school in Aceh Besar. This region is scarcely considered as rural area because its proximity to the province Capital, but it still can be marked as rural area due to social condition. She uttered that several schools there follow the central government instruction to hold the class remotely. Those schools also use the platform that the government suggested. However, the problem is in the student’s side, since most of them have no proper devices — in this case a personal computer — despite the internet service is available there. Eventually, this circumstance prevents online learning.
Other regions in Indonesia have the nearly identic situation in term of the methodology to implement online learning. Perhaps Java island has less effect because the facilities there are sufficient. If there is a failure, that is caused by the computer literacy issue.
Sudden change caused a slight chaos in education system
The central government set off the education system revolution in Indonesia by applying the online system in the school level benefitting from the pandemic circumstance. This revolution aims to constantly develop education quality in Indonesia to reach the level of other developed states. The newly appointed Minister of Education, Nadiem Makarim, was the CEO of an online transportation platform which means his appointment aims to bring the technology to Indonesia’s education system. He is planning to implement an integrated online learning system to all education institutions in Indonesia in the next few years.
However, the outbreak forced the plan to be implemented extremely earlier than what is expected. Whilst, the stakeholders in the grassroots level are not prepared enough for this revolution which seems to be premature and unexpected. Only university-level recognised this system, yet those universities in which the distance learning is available just a few.
As the online system is not well-known in the lower education level, then there is an insufficiency of facilities to hold the purposed system, and the lack human capability to do so, this “early revolution” results in minor chaos in the education system especially in the rural area and developing region like Bener Meriah.
Notwithstanding, the Ministry of Education has recently hired the national television channel to broadcast teaching program for all levels. It means student are not required to have a personal computer, nor internet access, because the television coverage reaches the countryside. Therefore, implementing the integrated curriculum for remote study becomes possible. Again, this programme could lead to a question what is the responsibility of the teacher then? The minister of education has not given any detail about the role of the local teachers in the new system.
The COVID-19 outbreak comes unexpectedly, forcing an immediate change in many aspects to be applied in a short time. A poor condition and less preparation result in the chaos, this prevents a nation from stepping forward normally.
