The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected most public service activities of the government, including the education sector. Based on the Minister of Education and Culture Circular Letter (SE) Number 4 of 2020, all schools in Indonesia are required to implement Study from Home or Belajar dari Rumah (BDR). Under these conditions, teachers are faced with the challenge of being able to effectively manage learning at home. INOVASI has tried to respond quickly to the current state of education by contributing to provide support for teachers and parents so that children in early grade primary schools (grades 1, 2, and 3) can continue to learn. A number of meaningful learning activities have been developed by INOVASI through Student Worksheet (LKS) as an effort to assist teachers and parents in supporting children’s learning activities at home during the pandemic. These various worksheets consist of worksheets with materials related to literacy, numeracy, character education, and psycho-education which are designed to be used easily, both by adults who still need to accompany children, as well as for children who are able to use them independently.
State elementary school SDN Sapikerep 3, Probolinggo Regency is located at Sapikerep Village, at the peak of the Mount Bromo in East Java. In order to get to the village where the school is located, the principal, Syaiful Anwar, M.Pd., has to travel via a muddy road that can only be traversed by a dirt bike for 7 km. The distance of this school from the center of Probolinggo Regency is about 100 km.
To date, not all of the areas of the remote Sapikerep Village have received electricity. If there is electricity, it is due to the villager’ own generators, used to get electricity. There is also no cell phone signal in the area. This situation certainly makes online Study from Home (BDR) activities or through broadcasts on TVRI, practically impossible to do at this school.
Based on this, Syaiful decided that students should continue to attend school every Monday by implementing physical distancing or maintaining distance while in school. Usually the teacher will give assignments to students on Monday when they enter school. The assignment is prepared so that students can do it at home for a week. On the following Monday, students will return to school and bring along the assignments they have done, and they will also receive new assignments.
The school led by Syaiful is one of the schools that has taken advantage of the Student Worksheet (LKS) developed by INOVASI. According to Syaiful, the LKS has really aided teachers in providing assignments to students.
“We use all of INOVASI’s worksheets and they have really helped us in giving assignments to students during this pandemic. Students are actually confused on why they have to go to school once a week. This is because the information and news about Covid-19 from the outside, does not reach to this place,” explained Syaiful.
Of course, there are challenges faced in realizing learning activities in the current situation, for example, limited access to printers or copiers. However, this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the teachers. There are always other methods they use, for example, the teacher writes the assignments on blackboard for the students to copy. Students will then work on the assignments at home for a week.