Maretha Uli, Jakarta – Prolonged forest and peatland fires have disrupted schooling across Indonesia, forcing schools to shift to online learning and delaying exams, raising concerns over widening learning gaps among students in affected regions.

High school students across the country began taking the academic competency test (TKA) on Monday. But in Central Kalimantan, one of the provinces hardest hit by forest and peatland fires this year, students will have to wait until next month to take the exam because of deteriorating air quality.

According to Swiss-based air quality monitoring IQAir, Central Kalimantan and its capital Palangka Raya recorded "unhealthy" to "hazardous" air quality on Wednesday, continuing a pattern observed in recent weeks.

The toxic haze, which has turned Kalimantan's skies dusty orange, has also repeatedly disrupted school schedules since August, forcing schools to periodically switch to online learning. The Palangka Raya Education Agency has extended online learning for kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools from Monday through Wednesday.

Similar disruptions have been reported in other regions, including North Sumatra and South Sumatra. The latter, along with Central Kalimantan, is among the provinces with the largest burned areas recorded this year.

However, Indonesia's online learning system has made little progress since its widespread adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, education analyst Indra Charismiadji said.

He warned that the latest disruptions could bring back learning loss, a decline in students' knowledge and skills caused by prolonged interruptions to their education. Unequal internet access, incomplete digitalization of education and teachers' limited skills in online instruction remain major obstacles.

"If students have to switch to online learning, the education quality will decline. Even without being affected by disasters, learning outcomes remain poor," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Indra cited Indonesia's latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which showed modest gains in science and reading but a decline in mathematics. Indonesia remained in the lower half of the assessment, which covers 91 countries.

He also questioned the implications of postponing the TKA in haze-affected regions. Although the test is not mandatory, it has become widely used in university admissions. "If the test ends up jeopardizing the futures of students in disaster-hit regions, that would be unfair."

Education expert Darmaningtyas argued that neither online nor in-person learning would be effective if students continued to suffer from the health effects of the haze.

"If students are suffering from respiratory illnesses that make it difficult to concentrate either way," he said on Tuesday.

He nevertheless supported postponing the TKA in affected areas, saying students struggling to concentrate would be less likely to absorb lessons and perform well in exams.

Darmaningtyas also warned that prolonged fires and schooling disruptions in Kalimantan, Sumatra and other affected regions could widen the education gap between students there and their peers in Java.

According to the Health Ministry, the haze had caused respiratory infections in more than 333,000 people as of Oct. 21, including around 75,000 children under five and 258,000 people aged five and older.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry is overseeing the regular TKA from this week through the first week of November, while makeup exams for students in Central Kalimantan have been rescheduled for mid-November.

A top official at the schools ministry, Toni Toharudin, said last week that the postponement had been decided after considering the severity of the disaster in the region.

"The safety and health of students, teachers and all examiner teams are our top priority," he said. He was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

The ministry also issued a circular in August outlining emergency learning protocols, including switching to online learning depending on pollution levels, distributing masks to schools, maintaining smoke-free classrooms and allowing flexibility in the use of school operational assistance (BOS) funds.

As of September, 12,874 schools serving around 1.4 million students had shifted to online learning, with West Kalimantan recording the highest number. Schools without access to electricity or the internet were to distribute printed learning modules and take-home assignments, while arranging home visits by teachers.

Source: https://asianews.network/haze-disrupts-schooling-in-indonesia-threatens-learning-outcomes