A traditional, wet market is a place you would least expect to find a childcare center let alone an early childhood education center (PAUD), but such establishments are cropping up in markets across the capital.

Amid the bustling sound of activity in Kramat Jati wholesale market in East Jakarta on Thursday morning, voices of children screaming and playing could be faintly heard from a building at the back of the market.

In front of the green building stands a board written “PAUD Bina Tunas Jaya”. The building is only around 300 square meters in size, consisting of three clasrooms and a backyard equipped with swings and slides.

“They’re the children of people who work at the market such as sellers, market porters, onion peelers or other workers,” PAUD Bina Tunas Jaya headmaster Feda Sofiana told The Jakarta Post.

“They come at around 7 in the morning. We start the class at 8. Just like other PAUD, we sing, draw, read books, recite the Quran and many other learning activities. They have a break at 10 and gather again 30 minutes later to have lunch. The class finishes at 11,” she explained.

The PAUD began as a childcare center also named Tunas Jaya back in 1992, started by city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya.

In January 2018, the Jakarta Education Agency issued a permit for the childcare center to become a PAUD under the management of Pasar Jaya — more specifically the wives of employees and women employees of Pasar Jaya.

While many daycare centers and PAUD in Jakarta charge enrollment fees ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of rupiah, PAUD Binas Tunas Jaya charges nothing for the learning activities.

However, they are required to pay Rp 5,000 (35 US cents) per student per day for snacks and lunch that the PAUD provides to ensure that the children go home with their tummy full.

In its day-to-day activities, the PAUD is operated by one headmaster, three teachers, one cook and one cleaner. Most of them have worked there for more than a decade, including Feda who has been with the PAUD since 2004.

“Back when we were still a daycare center, parents mostly left their children here from 7 a.m. until dusk. There was nap time in the afternoon and we gave them a bath before they went home,” Feda reminisced.

Supervisor of the PAUD and wife of Pasar Jaya president director Lya Arief Nasrudin said that besides Kramat Jati wholesale market, they had opened a PAUD in Mayestik market in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

This year, Pasar Jaya along with the Jakarta Education Agency have planned to launch 14 new PAUDs in other traditional markets across the city.

“The one that will be launched at the end of March is in Kenari market, Central Jakarta. We’re currently preparing more PAUDs in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta; Tebet Timur, South Jakarta; Walang Baru, North Jakarta; and Klender, East Jakarta markets,” she said.

According to Lya, the PAUD is part of facilities to serve market workers. This means that the establishment of such education centers is paid for by Pasar Jaya and the operational costs are covered through the company’s CSR program.

Opening new PAUD in other markets, Lya added, had its own challenges. Sometimes the PAUD is so popular with parents, who are excited to have a place where they can put their children while they are working, that the PAUD receives way too many applicants.

“Since it’s an official education institution, parents should be aware that it’s not a daycare center. We have a fixed capacity with fixed programs, and we have to be strict about that,” she said.

At 11 a.m., the children sat in a huge circle and prayed together. They took their bags and then said goodbye to the teachers. Some were picked up by their parents, while some others went straight inside the market to meet their parents who were still working.

Among the parents that afternoon was Maminalijab Manalu, mother of 6-year-old Umar, who came with a 3-year-old girl holding her one hand and a baby in her other arm. She is the wife of a scavenger in the market.

She said she felt helped by the presence of the PAUD. She could count on the PAUD for her son’s early education at such an affordable price while her husband could focus on working as she takes care of the other two kids.

“By the end of this academic year, Umar will graduate and enter elementary school, and I’ll enroll Umar’s little sister here,” she said.

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