Indonesian wildfire haze forces 1.4 million students to move to online learning

About 1.4 million students in six Indonesian provinces ⁠had shifted to online ⁠learning due to poor air quality ⁠triggered by forest and land fires, an official said on Wednesday.

As of September 2, around 1.43 million students from 12,874 schools in six of the provinces hit hardest by forest and land fires had been studying remotely, Gogot Suharwoto, an education ministry official, told the media.

Indonesia has intensified efforts to contain haze caused by wildfire in the six provinces, which include Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra on the island of Sumatra, as well as West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan on Borneo.

Of the ⁠1.43 million students, 1.1 million were in West Kalimantan, Gogot said, the province that has ‌recorded the most extensive wildfires so far this year.

The remote learning period would last from Monday until Friday and ‌would be continuously evaluated every three days, Gogot said.

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Indonesia’s Kalimantan blanketed in thick haze as country continues to battle wildfires

The decision to conduct ⁠online learning would ⁠be based on the air pollution standard index in each region, he said.