POLICY BRIEF In the education sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused hundreds of thousands of schools to close and impacted more than 62.5 million students ranging from pre-school to tertiary levels.5 The Distance Learning Policy (Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh/PJJ) has become burdensome for some parents, students, and even teachers. Transition to online learning requires telecommunication infrastructure that is evenly distributed and accessible by every citizen. Teachers’ competence must also be improved to adjust to the PJJ which is still ongoing for some time to come. It is closely related to SDG Target 4.c. The growing unemployment was another impact arising from the pandemic. Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik/BPS) recorded that the unemployment rate in Indonesia until August 2020 reached 9.77 million people.6 The number of informal workers also increased to 60.47%.7 Moreover, neglected workers’ rights such as unilateral termination of employment (Pemutusan Hubungan Kerja/PHK), severance pay that was detrimental to workers, and the safety of workers from being infected with COVID-19 were also emerging issues during the pandemic, which were closely related to SDG 8. In the 2020 complaint data of Komnas HAM RI, there were 52 cases of violations of workers’ rights committed mostly by companies. Most of the complaints were related to issues around payment of wages and unilateral layoffs. The loss of the right to life for medical and health personnel as well as excessive working hours resulted in physical and mental problems. In this case, human rights violation was potentially related to justice for medical personnel considering small incentives that they received, proposal for additional incentives that were also refused, and the realization of incentives was not being maximized. Furthermore, Indonesian migrant workers (Pekerja Migran Indonesia/PMI) also encountered various human rights issues during the pandemic, such as stigma of being “the virus carrier”, and there was no rights protection scheme when they returned. Development of technological infrastructure, particularly information technology, in the mitigation of epidemics was linked to SDG 9. Several steps of technology utilization have been taken by the government to provide health consulting services and crowd tracking. However, Komnas HAM RI recorded breaches of COVID-19 patient data that were owned 5 “COVID-19 and Learning Inequities in Indonesia: Four Ways to Bridge the Gap”, World Bank Blogs, published on 21 August 2020, https://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/covid-19-and-learninginequities-indonesia-four-ways-bridge-gap. 6 “Ekonomi Indonesia Triwulan III 2020 Tumbuh 5,05 Persen (q-to-q)”, Badan Pusat Statistik, published on 5 November 2020, https://www.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2020/11/05/1738/ekonomi-indonesia-triwulaniii-2020-tumbuh-5-05-persen--q-to-q-.html. 7 Ibid. 4