Learning From Home

Sunday January 31st 2021

Students Experienced Online Learning as The Impact of Covid-19 Outbreak

The world was shocked by the outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020. A virus that came from Wuhan, China, is known to trigger common colds, and more recently two types have set off outbreaks of deadly illnesses: severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers). Coronaviruses infected more than 2 million people in less than 6 months. The disease continues to spread and affects lots of sectors of life, including education. Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta responded to this condition by adjusting the learning process.

Since the government issued a new policy for schools to provide online learning, Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta then designed such a mode of learning appropriately. Home-learning is aimed not to follow trends, yet we considered many aspects involved in this process.

Effective, meaningful, and fun activities are key in designing home learning so as to make students achieve the learning objectives. Technology takes an important part while teachers and parents work hand-in-hand to make sure that children use it properly.

Students were given a weekly plan every Students get a weekly plan every Friday to guide them in doing home-learning. Teachers design activities, projects and assignments collaboratively. The activities include daily prayers, Qur’an recitation, workouts, experiments, projecs, life skill projects and quizzes. Parents’ participation in helping students understand instructions, prepare for learning materials, submit projects/assignments and any other kind of assistance is needed to support the success of home learning.

The class is held everyday by using a platform called Zoom. Google Hangout, and WhatsApp video call. Teachers and students actively built meaningful and fun virtual meetings. They created.

Home learning is not merely a matter of moving the learning process from school to home but more than that, it is an opportunity to develop students’ soft skills, primarily responsibility and independence. Home learning may be very tough for some parents since they need to (almost) fully accompany their child(ren) to study. However, It is hoped that this tough time will turn into a golden time to build up parent-child(ren) bonding. We do appreciate all parents of Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta students who have played a vital role in this home learning.

Testimony

Prof. Dra. Hj. Suwarsih Madya, M.A., Ph.D.

Amidst the globalized situation which poses challenges of which one is a possible threat to identity, yet provides ample opportunities to excel for those who possess the prerequisites, we need to equip our children as the continuing generation with necessary competencies—affective, cognitive, psychomotor and interactive. In other words, we need to help them grow and develop into total persons and this can be achieved through the whole-child development approach which ensures the development of all potentials. In addition to this is the need for developing some competence which enables the children to communicate globally. All of this will ensure that the children will develop their citizenships both at the national and global levels. How can this ideal development be realized?

If you want to find out about how efforts are made to develop children’s whole potentials, you can come to SD Islam Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta. Here you can see how the four-year old school has grown fast due to the stakeholders’ trust to send their children to study here. With only 54 children in the first year, this school now has 185 students. These students are educated to respect and preserve the social-cultural environment by learning the local language (Javanese, including the script) and arts (dance). Simultaneously, they certainly learn the national language (Bahasa Indonesia) and national content, which is unquestionable since it is compulsory, and English, which has now become a global lingua franca; thus, a prerequisite for successful global communication. More importantly, children in this school also learn to practise their religion consistently. So, in this school children’s identity is rooted in the local culture, with nationalism and global awareness being inherently developed together with reliogiosity.

Does the whole-child development approach at SD Islam Al Azhar still give room for children to excel? In my belief, when all their potentials are developed, children will have a greater chance to excel and I can see the truth in my belief in this primary school. In the last two years, the students have made great achievements in various competitions held at the local and national levels–gold medals in English, math and science competitions (national), silver and bronze medals in IT competitions (national), silver and bronze medals at colouring and swimming competitions (local) to mention some.

In conclusion, SD Islam Al Azhar has given evidence of the right efforts of true education to develop both intelligence and character.

Prof. DR. Budi S. Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.

Testimoni Sebagai Orang tua menyekolahkan anak Di Al-Azhar 55

Sudah menjadi kewajiban bagi orang tua untuk memberikan pendidikan yang terbaik bagi putra putrinya. Tantangan untuk mendidik anak di Era Global dan Digital pun semakin besar, kita tidak bisa lagi membendung segala perubahan yang begitu cepat terjadi, dan harus mempersiapkan anak-anak supaya bisa survive dan sholeh/sholehah tentunya. Saat ini dunia bagaikan kampung, dimana tidak ada batas-batas untuk melakukan transaksi kehidupan, untuk itu anak harus bisa berkomunikasi dengan bahasa universal sebagai modal utama. Disamping itu, pendidikah Ahlak dan Aqidah harus diberikan secara dini sebagai dasar anak dalam menghadapi gejolak gelombang kehidupan. Atas pertimbangan tersebutlah, kami selaku orang tua memilih untuk menyekolahkan putra kami tercinta Hikari di Sekolah Islam, yang menggunakan dua bahasa pengantar, yaitu Al-Azhar 55.

Prof. DR. Budi S.Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.