Tute during Covid19

The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise. 

Globally, everything has stopped. Projects have been delayed, workplaces closed and schools shut down. The world seems to have ground to a halt because of the novel coronavirus. 

However, students continue their education through online learning and via video calls with their teachers, especially in big cities. The model is currently the best alternative as keeping schools open poses a safety risk for students. 

Globally, many countries have adopted this approach. Schools in New York, the United States, prepared for online learning by distributing gadgets to their students, ensuring they had access to learning materials. As of early April, education authorities distributed around 500,000 laptops and tablets to their students, allowing them to participate in classes online. 

When the first two COVID-19 cases were announced in Indonesia in early March, the country was in a panic. On March 14, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced that all schools in Jakarta were to be closed. However, many schools were not ready to apply home learning programs yet. The online classes implemented in Indonesia work differently from those in the US. This is due to a lack of preparation in this country. 

As a student participating in the home-learning program, online school was confusing to adjust to as they had not been prepared through simulations or practices beforehand. Students reported the home-learning program to be even more stressful than regular classrooms. Some of the common reasons for this went along the lines of: "Normal classes may have been difficult, but having friends makes it so much more manageable and less stressful. Online classes take out the benefits of having friends to socialize with and being stuck alone with nothing but assignments." 

Many students participating in home-learning programs also say that the workload of online classes is larger than that of regular classes. The general consensus is that home-learning programs — although highly beneficial and a good alternative to school as schools are closed — still require some getting used to by students, as it is a novel concept and not many are experienced with them. 

However, although the closing of schools does have a silver lining (home-learning programs where students are still able to learn), the true sufferers of the government order of school closings are the students in less fortunate situations and the students who are in schools that are not well-funded. 

This is because those students lack the devices and internet access to be able to participate in online classes, and the schools do not have the capacity to teach online. Unlike in New York where devices are distributed to students by schools and private companies, in Indonesia, there is yet to be this kind of effort. 

This leaves many students in a bad spot where they are unable to receive an education. Although internet service providers have been giving out free data packages, they are simply not capable of supporting video calls on programs such as Zoom. 

To further complicate things, it seems that COVID-19 will last a while in Indonesia. For context, in China, it took months for the transmissions to stabilize — and this was with a fast government response, instant lockdown and people obeying the rules and quarantine policies. 

Despite the lack of a nation-wide lockdown, schools remain closed, meaning that students who have no access to a device or internet connection will have a difficult time maintaining their education. Due to these factors, they will be in a very difficult spot educationally until the COVID-19 pandemic dies down in Indonesia. In this situation, the government should make extra efforts to support the education sector and build a sense of solidarity among schools, such as by facilitating networks between international and national/public schools to share experiences and study methodologies for online teaching. 

Thankfully, there are now some alternatives to online learning in which students in less fortunate situations could participate. TUTE Education is one of those examples or solutions as you might say wherein we teach students at the lowest cost with only 99/- INR . TUTE focuses on the betterment of students even in the COVID. Visit www.tute.in