Indonesia’s early childhood development, measured through UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI), initially showed great promise. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may derail all progress made by the country.

As part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the ECDI is crucial in portraying the achievement of early childhood development at the population level.

Indonesia was among the first 91 countries to pursue data collection needed to obtain an ECDI score in 2018. The data collection process includes tabulation of four indicators, namely literacy-numeracy, physical, learning and social-emotional.

“In reality, there are numerous other countries that have yet to do any measurements. Yet, Indonesia has done it and this is something we need to appreciate from our government; showing the government’s commitment to achieve the sustainable development goals,” said Syifa Andina, an early childhood development expert and education consultant for UNICEF.

Syifa was speaking during a Jakpost Up Close webinar titled “Early Childhood Development in Indonesia: Are we on track?” on Wednesday which was held in cooperation with Tanoto Foundation.

The country achieved a score of 88.3 percent in 2018. Although a respectable figure, a point of concern for the country is the disparity among the four indicators, as well as across different regions in the country.

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