Dear Parents and Friends,
World Teacher's Day (Australian version) is celebrated today!
This has been an exceptionally challenging year for all of us, and the way that all our staff have stepped forward and accepted the challenges is something to be admired.
As teachers and leaders, we are all faced with a unique set of challenges, responsibilities and circumstances. None of us could have foreseen the events that have unfolded so far in 2020, but they have reinforced our view – now more than ever – that teachers are selfless, determined, and dedicated to their work. On behalf of the AIS Leadership Team, the Board and of course, parents and students,
HAPPY WORLD TEACHER’S DAY.
We truly value your commitment and the work you do every day to improve the lives, opportunities, and learning of our young people. Your impact is so important and cannot be underestimated.
Many parents have asked about when study/learning groups will start and what will 2021 look like regarding location and whether we will be open as per normal. As always our responses to your concerns come from a place of honesty and transparency. Being completely honest, we have not heard anything official from the government nor the relevant ministries on the reopening of schools. Along with other international schools in Jakarta and Bali, we have received no guidance or advice as to how we are supposed to move forward with education and it seems there are different directives depending on who you talk to! While we know this is no surprise to anyone living in Indonesia, it does create all sorts of frustrations for us as a school as well as for you - our parent community. Something we all have in common is we just want to know what is going on!
Unfortunately, due to this lack of information, we are unable to predict a reopening date for face-to-face classes. Daily case numbers in Jakarta are at a similar average level to those in mid-September when Governor Anies Baswedan reimposed PSBB protocols in Jakarta, although they have now started to ease slightly. Consequently, we are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to reintroduce small study groups once the PSBB protocols have been further relaxed and we can get support from our local Ministry of Education office to do so. As for returning to face-to-face teaching, we will keep you and the AIS Community informed should we receive permission from the Ministry of Education to reopen campus and in line with our reopening plans that were shared with the community earlier in the year.
We acknowledge that our study groups were very popular as well as successful and we hope to resume them as soon as we can.
Regarding some expatriate staff not being able to return to Indonesia, we are still working with immigration and manpower and trying to get our staff back into Indonesia. Along with other international schools, this is certainly a source of frustration for us as it seems the process is not moving as fast as we would like. Please be assured that as soon as we can get staff back into Indonesia they will be returning.
We have heard rumours ourselves amongst professional collaboration groups that Indonesia will be opening schools in January regardless of coloured zoning maps but again it is just speculation and we have no idea if there is any truth in it.
As a leadership team, we give you our assurances that as soon as we hear anything pertinent and pertaining to the facts we will notify all parents immediately.
Have a lovely weekend.
Warm regards,
Ms. Jodi and Mr. Henri
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