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em>Aug. 31, p4

The Education and Culture Ministry is planning to make it compulsory for parents to enroll their children for early childhood education (PAUD) before entering kindergarten.

A ministry early childhood education directorate general official, Wartanto, said the government would start the program next year.

'€œStarting 2016, there will be Rp 2.4 trillion [US$170.12 million] in special allocation funds transferred to regions,'€ he said during a discussion on Saturday.

He said that early childhood education had become a semi-formal education availed of by many parents.

Your comments:

This is a confusing message as I do believe even primary education (SD) has yet to be made compulsory in Indonesia, or am I mistaken? And why do we have all the '€œstreet children'€ working at traffic intersections all over the country without education offered while money is going to be spent on 3- and 4-year-olds who really should be playing in their home environment?

Cisero

Elementary school ( SD) is compulsory, as is kindergarten (TK B). How well this is supervised is another question. More and more research is showing that what is learned up to the age of 5 determines the level of ability possible later on.

No doubt children should have time to play their hearts out at home too. Of course they can learn as much at home too if parents have that intention and there is a good environment.

How good the PAUD programs are everywhere and how well the money is used is essential though, and the Education and Culture Ministry does not have a good track record in it either.

WK