Schooling During Covid-19

Various efforts to control the covid-19 pandemic have had a significant impact on the economic sector, daily activities, and all aspects of children’s lives. This impact may be lifelong in some children ,even though the health risk due to COVID-19 infection in children is lower compared to the older age group.

“ children are the invisible victims”

considering the short and long term impacts on the health, welfare, development and future of the children. More than 120 countries have imposed restrictions on social interaction through school closings. All of the schools in Indonesia have closed since the beginning of March 2020, so millions of students cannot attend school.

Schools are being asked to facilitate learning from home using a number of public and private digital platforms that provide free content and online and remote learning opportunities across regions.

Online distance learning still presents challenges. Online is a new thing for many students and teachers. In order to give all children the opportunity to continue learning from home, including those without internet access, offline learning alternatives are also important to explore.

Closing schools can exacerbate gaps in access to education. Children have various difficulties in accessing and obtaining education.

Poor students are the most affected by school closures. Poor families do not make children’s education their top priority because they often struggle to meet basic needs. 

The length of time lost in learning can make it difficult for many students to master the knowledge and abilities according to the expected grade level. This situation can pose a risk to the future of the children.

There are several issues that are experienced with the school children during the Covid-19 pandemic. Especially learning problems.

First, they must study from their home. The learning activities use the Google classroom application, but the problems of studying at home are:

1. There is often no access to the Internet network.
2. High fees for internet data.
3. Many teachers don’t really understand the technology.
4. Schools are poorly equipped to carry out the online teaching and learning process and therefore the learning process suffers.
5. Parents find it difficult to accompany their children to study at home.

Until now, we still haven’t received the end of 2020 school reports for many reasons, largely covid related.

Damara will meet their teacher directly, and we intend to write a special report on children assisted by the Damara Bali Foundation for their sponsors.

WHAT DOES THE DAMARA BALI FOUNDATION DO?

Make sure children continue to learn by:

1. Build a safe and comfortable learning house so that children can learn better.

2. Provide wifi so that poor children have access to the internet and they can learn online

3. Provide better support and guidance and motivation to children during the pandemic, as this is the first time they are facing this situation and they may also find it difficult to learn from home.

4. Encourage students to support efforts to prevent and control disease at home and in the community by explaining how to prevent the spread of the virus, so that public health education can be carried out in the long term.