True Story about Missing and Fearing Students at School During Pandemic

INTERNATIONAL     |   INDONESIA   -   A number of students claimed to miss going back to studying in the classroom or hanging out with school friends like in normal times. However, they prefer to stay and study at home during the Covid-19 pandemic,  which  still endangers safety.

Right now,  only few of schools that are really breaking the rule, only few of students can be allowed and come for studying at school.  Only certain schools.  

Nadien (16), a grade 1 high school student in South Jakarta, feels the longing to return to school. He has been studying from home since mid-March.

Nadien wants to go back to studying in the classroom. But he admits he doubts students will be able to refrain from keeping their distance if schools reopen during the pandemic.

"There must be a lot of violations . Because the desire to chat, play with friends and be close is definitely higher. Because the disease can't be seen directly," he told CNNIndonesia.com by telephone.

"Because this is with friends, with girlfriends, I think it's safe," he continued.

Entering the third month of studying at home, Nadien admits that it is increasingly difficult to find motivation to study from home.

He still needs time to adapt in order to establish a home as a place to study. Before corona, home was a place to rest.

The discourse on the opening of the school was first revealed by Plt. Director General of PAUD, Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture Muhammad Hamid.

He stated that school openings were only carried out in green zone areas. Mendikbud Nadiem Makarim said the opening of this school would be disclosed.

However, until now Nadiem has not talked much about opening schools. He only stated that the opening of schools during the pandemic was within the authority of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19.

Micky (16), a grade 1 high school student in Surabaya, East Java, also agrees that the pandemic conditions in Indonesia are not yet safe for students to return to school.

Even though he is still in school, he admits that he is diligent in following the development of cases in Surabaya and Indonesia.

One of the concerns is the phenomenon of people without symptoms (OTG). According to Micky, the existence of OTG makes students, if they return to school, more vulnerable to contracting and transmitting the virus.

He also doubts that the health protocol can be applied maximally in schools. Even if the classroom is given a partition to keep the distance.

"If the break is useless, we also gather again," he said.

A possible solution, according to Micky, is to reduce the number of students in one class. That is, learning time is divided into several shifts. 

Micky didn't want to go back to school. He even admitted that he had many obstacles when he was learning from home. One of them is related to communication with teachers.

During study hours, the teacher is not always responsive in answering short messages, so sometimes he is left behind on his assignments.

Micky is irritated by the problem and wants to go back to school as normal. However, if school activities are forced during the pandemic, he believes it will bring danger.

For Aisyah, a 5th grade elementary school student in South Tangerang, Banten, it is difficult to imagine wearing a mask during school hours. 

Aisyah, who is still 10 years old, reflects on her own experience. He often feels hot wearing a mask for a long time.

"Father said that when you go out you have to wear equipment first, such as a mask, gloves. When I go out I wear a mask, but I often sweat. It's hot."