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ulture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan has announced a plan to develop a Parenting Education Directorate (Direktorat Keayahbundaan). Those who oppose the plan say that government does not need to involve itself that far into private matters.

Every parent has their own values in raising their children. However, given the important role of parents in guiding their children'€™s education, advocates of the plan say children spend most or a lot of their time at home.

The minister has said parents play an important role in a child'€™s upbringing, but are largely unprepared for this role. True, most schools do not provide special programs related to parenting education. Typically parents are invited to gather in school on parents day, or in outing activities. They are still the '€œother'€ in students'€™ lives.

Thus government intervention in parenting education is viewed as important. Structurally the new directorate would be under the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Non formal and Informal since constitutionally informal education is family education, including parents.

The minister stated that the directorate would not form a parents'€™ school, but develop a reference for parents to learn about parenting.

Internationally, the enthusiasm for greater parental involvement particularly in early childhood education has generated a burgeoning literature. Governmental practice on parental involvement in education is also enormous.

A study in 2008 found that the governments of the UK, Canada and Finland for instance, have exemplified how to involve parents in their children'€™s education by providing service-oriented policies relevant to parental education and support.

Particularly, parental education policies are not typically stand-alone policies. For example the UK places parental education within the remit of the Department for Education and Skills.

This Department is responsible for umbrella policies covering a variety of activities related to education and training and the creation of a skilled workforce.

Meanwhile in Canada, parental education is vested in Health Canada which provides funding for programs like the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program, which focuses on mothers of young children and their capability to provide a healthy environment for their children.

On the other hand, Finland'€™s policies relevant to parental education are within the ministry of social affairs and health.

Finland'€™s government sees that parents need to be supported in their role as the providers of a safe environment for their children, rather than children being supported via their parents. In Finland and the UK, programs are provided and operated by local agencies, yet sponsored and monitored by the central government.

However, none of the countries studied was found to have a specific policy targeting parents and their support and education entitlement, and in many cases parenting rights and responsibilities were not well defined.

Except in Finland where parents'€™ responsibilities with regard to their child'€™s upbringing are set out in the Child Custody and Right Access Act 1984.

In Indonesia, parenting education is usually talked about by the middle and upper classes such as seminars, training and workshops.

They dominate the discourse on knowledge and skills of parenting. Meanwhile the poor seem to be bringing up their children the same way their parents did.

Both father and mother are busy earning money. Moreover, teachers in good to poor quality education centers have said children of well-educated parents often lead the class. These children are mostly creative and critical.

But it is also often students from this social group who are involved in fighting, drug abuse, gadget addiction and poor learning outcomes.

Thus family or parenting education and support is not only a matter of parents'€™ preferences on how to raise their children but related to many other matters such as social, economic and parents'€™ educational background.

In term of the government'€™s intervention, a wider diversity in the services available to parents, a proactive approach is needed to raise parents'€™ awareness of the available services, among other things.

As scholars on education have said, the challenge for policymakers is not merely what works at the level of individual parenting programs and interventions, but a policy approach that addresses in a consistent way the multiple risks that adversely influence parenting, and enhance opportunities that promote parents'€™ resilience.

Based on the constitution, education comprises formal (school) and non formal (out-of school) education such as community learning centers, playgroups, course institutions etc.

Policies regarding parenting education need to empower programs related to students'€™ lives. Both academic and non academic.

The new directorate should also not overlap with other ministries or institutions'€™ core matters such as the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN), Social Affairs Ministry or the ministry'€™s early childhood education unit.