Schools across Indonesia may reopen in July, President Joko Widodo said, if health officials can meet his target of vaccinating 5 million educators in the next five months.
Jokowi, who this morning inspected a vaccination drive for teachers at a high school in South Jakarta, said teachers will be prioritized in the second phase of the mass vaccination program, which targets those who are considered more vulnerable to the coronavirus and more likely to interact with the general public.
“And the target for July is that, by then, 5 million teachers and education workers will have completed [their vaccinations]. This is so that in July, by the time the new academic year starts, everything will be normal once more,” Jokowi said today.
The president added that the government is currently vaccinating educators in Jakarta, with other regions set to follow soon.
Schools in Indonesia were closed at the onset of the pandemic, with students privileged to have access to the internet resorting to online learning.
The government was going to allow schools to reopen and conduct face-to-face learning in January 2021 as it deemed online learning to be less than optimal. But the plan was scrapped as Indonesia recorded worrying spikes in new COVID-19 cases at the turn of the year.
