The impact of Corona Virus on Education in Indonesia

The impact of corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is now starting to spread to the world of education. This is done as an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19 transmission. It is expected that all educational institutions do not carry out activities as usual; this can reduce the spread of Covid-19. The same has been done by various countries exposed to this disease, lockdown or quarantine policies carried out in an effort to reduce the interaction of many people who can provide access to the spread of Covid-19.

The spread of Covid-19 has a huge effect on the fading economy, but now the impact is being felt by the world of education. Policies taken by many countries including Indonesia by dismissing all educational activities make the government and related institutions must present alternative educational processes for students and students who are unable to carry out the educational process in educational institutions.

In Indonesia, the number of Covid-19 positive patients per week (29/3), increased to 1285 people (covid19.go.id). A total of 114 of them died, and 64 were declared cured. The cases came from DKI Jakarta (675), West Java (149), Banten (106), East Java (90), Central Java (63), South Sulawesi (47), DIY (22), East Kalimantan (17), Bali (10), Papua (9), North Sumatra (8), West Kalimantan (8), Kalimantan Central (7), Riau Islands (5), Lampung (4), Southeast Sulawesi (3), Riau (2), South Sumatra (2), NTB (2), North Kalimantan (2), North Sulawesi (2), Central Sulawesi (2), West Papua (2), Jambi (1), South Kalimantan (1), West covid19.go.id Sulawesi (1), Maluku

Based on data obtained from UNESCO, more than 160 countries have implemented national closures, affecting more than half the world's student population. The latest statistics from UNESCO (03/25/2020) state that 1,524,648,768 students were affected by the covid-19 virus out of 87.1% of the total students who enrolled. So far India and China have the largest number of students affected by the covid-19 virus, namely more than 270 million students, and in Indonesia as of Wednesday (25/3) as many as 68,265,787 students affected by Covid-19 (UNESCO, 2020). While other countries, 165 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America have announced or imposed restrictions on school and university learning. UNESCO provides direct support to countries, including solutions for inclusive distance learning. UNESCO together with each country work together to ensure continuity of learning for everyone, especially disadvantaged children and adolescents who are likely to be hardest hit by school closures (UNESCO, 2020).

The total number of potentially at-risk students from pre-primary to high school education was 577,305,660. On the other hand, the number of students potentially at risk from higher education is 86,034,287 people (Nugroho, 2020). Currently in Indonesia, some universities began to implement policies of teaching and learning activities from a distance or online lectures. This is actually not a problem for universities that already have an online academic system. But it will be a problem for colleges that don't yet have an online academic system.

The Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) is currently based on official information, ready with all scenarios including the application of cooperation to encourage online learning for students. In an effort to keep students learning at home, MOEC has prepared a number of support to smooth the process. They developed an android-based distance learning app: "Learning House portal" (Kemdikbud, 2020). This portal can be accessed on the learning.kemdikbud.go.id. Some of the excellent features that can be accessed by students and teachers include learning resources, digital classes, virtual laboratories, and question banks. Learning centers can be utilized by students and teachers of Early Childhood Education, Elementary, Junior High, High School or Vocational School or equivalent.

Currently based on information that MOEC has joined seven online learning platforms namely Smart Classroom, Quipper, Google Indonesia, Sekolahmu, Zenius, and Microsoft. Each platform will provide publicly accessible and free facilities. Several online learning platforms that students and teachers can access to improve learning resources include Google Indonesia, Sekolahmu, Kelas Pintar, Zenius, Quipper, and Microsoft.

Pandemic covid-19 is a tough test for all nations, testing the ability of all nations to be able to take wisdom by constantly trying and trying to find solutions to every problem. As a great nation, Indonesia must be able to overcome all problems. This is proven that Indonesia is ready with all possibilities, with the birth of technology created by the nation’s children to provide online education service.