Just like other countries affected by the 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic, students are urged to stay away from public places and to study at home.
To continue the process of students learning, decisions should be made by governments. This includes in Indonesia, where the Education and Culture Ministry said that it wants to collaborate with streaming platform Netflix in order to deliver teaching materials to students.
Indonesia has what it calls Belajar dari Rumah (Study from Home) program.
The program that is initiated by the government through the Education And Culture Ministry, is a full-day educational program to help students who are required to study from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to keep on learning. Since mid-April, the program is aired daily, and as Video on Demand, via the country's public television broadcaster TVRI.
Netflix is among the most popular online streaming services in Indonesia.
But since January 2016, the state-owned telecommunications and internet provider Telkom has blocked Netflix on all of its platforms citing censorship problems.
Concerning the Belajar dari Rumah, Communications and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate said that he hoped the platform would prioritize local content to help the country’s creative industry.
He urged the two sides meet to reach an agreement over the issue.
And when the government publicly said that it would broadcast several Netflix original documentaries as part of its Belajar dari Rumah, the decision was met with criticism.
A member of the House of Representatives, Willy Aditya from the NasDem Party, said that the collaboration was unethical, despite it didn't violate any regulations.
"Although the collaboration did not violate any regulations, on an ethical level it's still questionable. Rather than Netflix, the Education and Culture Ministry should collaborate with other state-owned enterprises," said Willy.
House of Representatives Commission X chairman Syaiful Huda said that the collaboration would limit room for creativity among the Indonesian youth.
"We think there are a lot of youths in the country that could create more creative documentaries, short movies or guidelines for students during this period of learning from home," said Huda in a statement, as reported by Kompas.
Huda also criticized the Education Ministry for not working with local production houses, and to instead work to create entertaining content for students during remote studies.
"I wonder why the education ministry as the home for education [in the country] chose to collaborate with a foreign streaming platform just for its documentaries.”
"Why should they collaborate with a video streaming platform that has yet to show clear contributions to the country's income? We still have the National Movie Center [PFN] and college students [with expertise] in visual communication design. Why didn't [the ministry] give them the opportunity?" Huda continued.
Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim, who is also the founder of Indonesia's decacorn ride-hailing service Gojek, said at a press conference that the partnership was worth $1 million and it would feature various activities, including scriptwriting workshops, a short film competition with the nation’s ideology Pancasila as the theme, an online safety training program and agile governance workshops.
The workshops are set to invite 10 up-and-coming Indonesian scriptwriters and producers to Los Angeles in the U.S., to then provide them with the chance to meet content creators from around the world, and learn how to develop authentic local content that appeals to a global audience.
Nadiem said the workshop in Jakarta would involve around 100 writers.
The partnership with Netflix is the Ministry's hope to make the program reach a wider audience.
As for Netflix, a spokesperson for the American media-services provider and production company said that:
"Our partnership with the Education and Culture Ministry helps reach more audiences in Indonesia given that TVRI has nationwide coverage, especially for students who might not have stable internet access while they learn from home. We selected titles that are meant to help students learn and be inspired through diverse, enjoyable and informative stories, especially during these challenging times when schools are closed."