Is Online Learning Activities a Bad Method for Students?

Where are students more actively involved and able to understand the lessons from the teacher? Is it at school in person or online? Since the pandemic occurred all over the world, especially in Indonesia starting in March 2020, lockdowns have been implemented in various countries. Therefore, all activities from studying to working are done at home online. Then the question in this discussion is online learning efficient for students? I think a lot of people wonder about this. Learning online during a pandemic is indeed the solution at that time. 

But after these few years, I think we have to find another way that students can learn directly in school. Based on the results of data conducted by Trunojoyo Madura University student at the end of 2020 involving various representatives ranging from teachers and students from elementary students, even lecturers and college students, it was found that all representatives interviewed were not comfortable studying online. In this case, government now face three main problems for student's learning system, namely create an offline learning system during the pandemic, choosing the right vaccine for students and make policies to reduce the possibility of students infected by the covid-19 virus.

The first step that government need to do is make an offline learning system during this pandemic. I think we need to take a step now, we can't wait until the covid-19 virus gone, because nobody know when this virus really gone. Even WHO said that the vaccine only reduce the chance of catching the covid but it is not certain to be 100 percent immune to covid.  It has not been ensured that scientists will be able to make a vaccine that is effective against the Corona virus Causes of Covid-19 pandemic,, according to the Chief of the World Health Organization (WHO, 26 June 2020). One of the things that need to be prevented from happening to young students is learning loss due to online learning.

For now, this learning loss is the result of the impact of school closures during the pandemic.  Based on RISE research, 3rd grade elementary school students who spend 6 months studying have the potential to fall behind by 1.5 years.  Grade 1 elementary school students who do not study within 6 months will be left behind by up to 2.2 years.  For Indonesian students, until April 2021, they have been undergoing Online learning for more than 13 months  (RISE ID, 29 April 2021). That's why our government needs to find the right learning system as soon as possible, because this can fool the next generation and also lead us to a problem that to be done by the government, namely choosing a right vaccine for students.

The next thing is which one is the right vaccine for student. There are various of vaccine that made by various country. But we should know, which one that has better effect for students which has been tested and recommended by the Minister of Health. Deputy Minister of Health (Wamenkes), Dante Saksono Harbuwono, revealed the national need for vaccination for children aged 6 to d.  11 years is 26.7 million children.  Taking into account two vaccinations for each child, about 58 million doses are needed.

"In addition to the children who were 11 years old yesterday, they turned 12 years old, there were 9.9 million doses.  We have anticipated this and we have prepared. And now we have 6.4 million doses of vaccine available. Based on recommendations from ITAGI and based on recommendations from BPOM, the vaccine used for children is the Sinovac vaccine," he said.  He added that the Ministry of Health will continue to accelerate vaccination, including starting vaccination for children aged 6-11 years (KEMDIKBUD 11 December 2021). That's a statement from our ministry of health about vaccines for students. So the type of vaccine has been determined by the minister of health, namely SINOVAC and hopefully this brings us closer and faster in holding face-to-face learning.

 The last step is what should we do to reduce the possibility of student infected by COVID-19. People infected with COVID-19 have various types of cases.  Starting from direct physical contact with people who are infected with this virus or indirectly. Based on Decree of The Minister of Health of The Republic of Indonesia  Number HK.01.07/MENKES/382/2020 about Community Health Protocol in Public Places and Facilities For The Prevention and Control of COVID-19, The Minister explain that public places and facilities are one of the location of community activities that will support economic sustainability, but have the potential to become the location of the spread of COVID-19 so that health protocols are needed in carrying out activities in public places and facilities. The government has reminded all of our Indonesian people to continue to obey the rules of the health protocol, because we are not only victims of the virus by others, but we can also be "carriers" or spreaders of the virus to others, especially to our own families. But I think it's not enough to face this virus and the government should make another rules. 

Food stalls, street vendors, hawker stalls and the like are allowed to open with strict health protocols until 20.00 local time with a maximum of 3 (three) people eating at the place and a maximum meal time of 20 (twenty) minutes. Restaurants, cafes located in closed buildings/stores, both in separate locations and in shopping centers/malls, only accept delivery/take away and do not accept meals on the spot (dine in). Activities at shopping centers/malls/trading centers are temporarily closed except for access for store employees who serve online sales with a maximum of 3 (three) people per shop, restaurant, supermarket, and supermarket can be allowed with due observance of the stipulated provisions (INSTRUCTION OF THE MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS NUMBER 27 OF 2021). Those are some of the rules or appropriate steps taken by our government to reduce or break the spread of COVID-19.  Starting from setting health protocols, limited public places such as malls, shopping places, restaurants etc and rules to several other public places, I think this is the right choice in this condition but on one condition, the government should helps the underpriveleged people.

In conclusion, our government need to as fast as possible to take a step to avoid our next generations become stupid. I think these are the few steps that the government should make :

Create a face-to-face learning system with health standards in accordance with the pandemic.
Ensure that the vaccine used for students, namely SINOVAC is suitable and safe.
Create and implement strict policies to reduce the spread of the CORONA virus.

These are the main things that government should do as fast as possible. The government must quickly realize that waiting for the pandemic to stop completely is not a good thing for the education of the younger generation. We must do and take advantage of the opportunities that exist as well as possible. Because it has been proven that studying online, is not good for students and teachers in our country. And we should realize that the pandemic does not only affect the economy but also all aspects of things such as education, health, lifestyle, global economy, and many things. But it's all return to our society, whether it is possible to live a clean and healthy life, so as not to harm each other.  Not everything we depend on the government, we need to be aware and make a change rom ourselves.