Photo illustration: Novita Eka Syaputri
This article is part of the Teachers' Notes series on "What the beginning teachers would change if given the opportunity to transform regulations or policies in the field of education".
Successful student learning is supported by various components, including quality teachers who master professional, pedagogical, social, and personality competencies.
Are these qualities enough? Of course not. Parents’ role in attending the student’s learning at home and the community’s role in monitoring student group learning in the neighbourhood are equally important.
These components require a guideline that includes policy and regulation from the education agencies. The policy would help schools to direct their students and their institution to become successful.
The latest educational policy enacted by the government is the Learning from Home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I think the policy is good enough for a time like this, but the system to control and evaluate students must be improved to maintain their character and integrity. The Learning from Home policy should continue, but it needs to also include in-person learning at the schoolyard with a strict health protocol at least once a week. Students go to school only to collect assignments and have learning evaluations, such as covering their books, being active in the chat group during learning from home activities, and other regulations that need to be conveyed in person. These would ensure students keep their responsibility.
I think students still need to come to school with strict COVID-19 protocol, such as applying physical distancing and wearing masks and gloves. The schedule of their visits must be modified as well, for example, only one class can come between 7 AM to 8 AM. Students from Grades 1 to 6 should alternate their visits.
Located in the schoolyard, teachers would deliver tips on how to prevent COVID-19 infection, check on students' homework, and evaluate their learning from home progress for the past week. This control and evaluation efforts, I think, could overcome problems faced by students who don't have mobile phone or laptop to study. Teachers would deliver announcements or give written assignments to students. Students would also be spared from boredom due to learning from home for an extended period.
Still, these are just my thoughts. The most important thing is to follow the policies made by the government with responsibility. Policies made by the government are conceptual maps to be implemented in the learning process. It would be hard to achieve success if teachers don't take the policies seriously.
*This Note was written by EW, a primary school teacher in East Java.
**All articles published in the Teachers' Notes are the views of the authors. They have been edited for popular writing purposes and do not represent the views of RISE Programme in Indonesia or RISE's funders.
