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Features
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THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2020
MAGELANG, INDONESIA (AFP) - Teacher Henrikus
Suroto vowed his students wouldn't be cheated
out of their education when the global pandemic
forced schools to be closed in Indonesia's remote
Kenalan village.
So he braves windy mountain roads and sheer
cliff drops to visit the poor farming community in
Central Java, where online classes are out of the
question due to a lack of Internet service - a luxury
few parents could afford anyway. Not only is Suroto
risking death or serious illness from COVID19, he is
violating government orders not to hold in-person
classes to prevent the spread of the disease.
"No one's forcing me to do this - it's something
inside telling me to do it," the 57-year-old told AFP.
"I feel a bit guilty about breaking (orders) to hold
online classes, but the reality is that it isn't easy here.
"The only solution is to be close to students with
door-to-door teaching," he added.
Suroto is one of a small number of teachers taking
on dangerous terrain, bad weather and the chance
of contracting the novel coronavirus, to reach home-
bound students across the world's fourth-most popu-
lous nation, home to a quarter of billion people.
Nearly 70million children and young people have
been affected by school shutdowns which started in
mid-March.
While the pandemic has sparked a boom in on-
line learning, especially in wealthy nations, about
one-third of Indonesia's nearly 270 million people
don't have access to the Internet or even, in some
cases, electricity.
Suroto and other Indonesian teachers said they
wear face masks, but the threats of becoming sick
or infecting students are ever-present.
Avan Fathurrahman, an elementary school in-
structor on East Java's Madura island, visits up to
11 students a day, an experience he wrote about in
now-viral Facebook posts.
He admited to being scared of getting ill.
"But my fears were overcome by the call to
teach," Fathurrahman said.
"I would not be comfortable staying at home
knowing that my students couldn't study properly."
Aside from government calls for online learning,
educational programmes are being aired on a state-
owned TV channel.
Education Minister Nadiem Makarim - a co-
founder of local ride-hailing app GoJek - has ac-
knowledged the challenges in remote learning,
however, and even expressed shock at how many
rural Indonesians lacked Internet service.
"We have to rely on the feet on the street - the ac-
tual teachers that mobilise themselves to teach door
to door," he said last month.
The pandemic has underscored huge challenges
in updating creaky infrastructure across the nearly
5,000 kilometre Southeast Asian archipelago - a key
priority for President Joko Widodo.
"Infrastructure-wise, Indonesia is not fully ready
for online learning," said Education Expert Christina
Kristiyani at Sanata Dharma University.
"Even if it was possible to do real-time video confer-
encing, it costs too much in rural areas," she added.
Meanwhile, many rural parents struggle to ill the
gap as they juggle often low-paid jobs and child care.
Pandemic no match
for Indonesia’s
door-to-door teachers
Fransiscus Xaverius Fri Harna teaching at a student’s
home in Magelang, Central Java, after schools were
closed due to the COVID19 coronavirus outbreak
on May 20. PHOTO: AFP
“At the same time, the COVID19 outbreak is still
raging around the world, more than 7.6 million infec-
tions conirmed in 188 countries and territories, in-
cluding at least 427,630 deaths. People’s lives, safety
and health should always come irst,” she continued,
while underlining the need to uphold the vision of a
global community of shared future. “We should sup-
port each other and join hands to contain the spread
of the virus and protect the health and well-being of
peoples across the globe.”
The ambassador added that on May 18, President
Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the opening ceremo-
ny of the virtual 73
rd
World Health Assembly where
he announced China’s measures to strengthen global
cooperation against the COVID19 outbreak.
This includes providing USD2 billion of inter-
national aid in the next two years, working with
the United Nations (UN) to set up a global humani-
tarian response depot and hub in China, securing
the supply chain and the Fast Lane operation of
anti-epidemic materials, making China’s COVID19
vaccine development and deployment, when
available, a global public good, contributing to
the accessibility and affordability of the vaccine in
developing countries.
“The pandemic will have a signiicant impact on
the development of humanity, but the people’s long-
ing for a happy life will remain unchanged,” afirmed
the ambassador. “Peace and development as well as
win-win cooperation remain the theme of our times.
China is willing to work with all countries including
Brunei, to upholdmultilateralism, jointly protect lives
and health of all peoples and build a global commu-
nity of health.”
"I can only remind (the kids) to study because I
can't help them like a teacher can," said Orlin Giri, a
mother from East Nusa Tenggara, one of Indonesia's
poorest regions.
"And we don't have enough money for an Inter-
net plan," she added.
That is a common story nationwide, said Fina, a
teacher on Borneo island.
"Many parents only graduated from elementary
school or junior high school - or they didn't even go
to school," she said.
"Just being able to send their children to school
is an extraordinary achievement."
Fina, who like many Indonesians goes by one
name, opted not to visit students as she has a baby
and lives in an area with a high infection rate.
"But this pandemic has taught us that, while
technology is good and very helpful, it so far cannot
replace the presence of teachers," she said.
The country’s paediatric association has warned
that malnutrition and mosquito-borne dengue fever
may be putting children at a greater risk of dying
from the respiratory illness.
Nearly 18 per cent of Indonesian children un-
der ive years suffer from nutritional deiciencies,
while kids aged ive to 14 make up nearly 42 per
cent of dengue fever patients, according to Health
Ministry data.
The risk was highlighted in April when an 11-year-
old girl with dengue fever, which itself can be fatal,
died after contracting COVID19.
Health authorities said the pre-existing illness
could have exacerbated the effect of the virus on
her weakened immune system.
Still, getting back to school can't come fast
enough for some students.
"I'm bored at home. I miss the school and all my
friends and teachers," said Gratia Ratna Febriani, a
pupil in Kenalan village.
That feeling struck a chord with junior high
school teacher Yunedi Sepdiana Sine who said she
will keep answering the call to visit some 50 children
a week.
"Students really miss their teachers so I feel
needed," she said.
"And that's what makes me content."