Chapter 7. Early Childhood Education and Development
4. Policy Options
Aligned with the structure of the discussion above, the policy recommendations for each of the 4 areas are summarized below:
4.1 Access
• Prioritize the most disadvantaged groups in expanding ECED services. The evidence is clear that the poorest, most marginalized children and families gain the greatest benefits. Work closely with existing community development programs. To reach the poor and disadvantaged it is important to work with community development programs to make use of current mechanisms for targeting and facilitation.
The introduction of the village fund also has the potential to provide additional support to expanding access to ECED.
• Coordinate to ensure coverage for all children 0-6. Access needs to cover all children between the ages of zero and six with MoEC providing services for 3-6 year olds. There should be flexibility in areas where TK service is not available or affordable by providing KB to expand their services to cover children 5 and 6. Similarly, in areas where there is no KB service, then TK should be encouraged to open KB or SPS services to children 3 – 4. In such an event, teacher training activities need to help teachers tackle the challenges of teaching classrooms that include children of very different ages.
4.2 Quality
• Ensure that National ECED standards (Permendiknas 58/2009) are used as the basis for establishing the ECED curriculum and as a basis for all professional development.
• Evaluate, improve and scale up various professional development forums for teachers/ educators, including Diklat Berjenjang, the use of ECED model/ resource centers for ‘magang’, internship, the use of KKG (cluster meeting) to improve teacher competency
• Develop career development system: a clear path of how teacher can be accredited and move from one level to the next one as well as converting their short course into credit points to continue to degree program.
• Clarify and strengthen the role of Pengawas TK and Penilik PAUD and provide support for improving their competency and their operations
• Develop and implement an effective quality assurance system
• Track the impact of training on classroom practices and outcomes for children.
4.3 Coordination
Clarify the role of the main agencies responsible for each component of HI-ECED. In particular, assign MoEC the leading role on the ‘Education/ early stimulation’ element through the application of the ECED national standards. This is also likely to ensure that MoEC can securethe budget justified by its function.
4.4 Financing
• Increase government budget on ECED services for 3-6 year olds. The cost projections outlined in this chapter show that the budget needed to expand the coverage of quality ECED services is affordable.
• Explore cost sharing opportunities with districts, community development programs, communities and private sector organizations. These arrangements need to be locally adaptable and reflect the fact that no one segment of society or government can be reasonably expected to shoulder the whole burden.
References
The seriousness of the Government of Indonesia toward early childhood development is reflected in the establishment of the following laws starting from sectoral regulations then moving forward to the integrated one:
• Government Regulation No. 33 of 2012 on Exclusive Breast Feeding
• Law No. 20 of 2003 on National Education System
• Law No. 17 of 2007 on Food
• Law No. 36 of 2009 on Health
• National Strategy for HI ECD (2008) - established policy directions of early childhood development which covers: i) Improving access, distribution and completeness of the types of early childhood development services, ii) improving the quality of early childhood development services (capacity, quality of human resources, completeness of materials, facilities and infrastructure), iii) improving cross-sectoral coordination and cooperation and partnership among government agencies, implementing agencies and related local, national and international organizations.
• Presidential Regulations No. 60 of 2013 - The strategy of implementing early childhood development has been evolving into holistic-integrative directions.
• A variety of movements:
a. Program Gerakan Nasional PAUD – National ECD Movement for Indonesia’s 100 year Independence – launched by Minister of Education and Culture in 2011
b. Program Bunda PAUD – National (2011), Province/ District, sub-district and village
c. “Program Satu Desa Satu PAUD” – One village, one ECED service (Directorate General PAUDNI) d. First Lady’s statement (2005) on integration of ECED, Posyandu and BKB (parenting)
Annex Table 1. Standards for Personnel in ECED
Type of ECED ECED service Employment Status Qualifications Formal ECED
a. Educators 1. TK teacher (Guru TK) Civil Servant/ Non CS S1/D4 & Certificate of Intermediate and Advanced Training
2. TK Assistant Teacher (Guru Pendamping TK)
Non CS D2/SMA and Certificate of
Basic/ Intermediate Training b. Education
Personnel
1. TK Principal Civil Servant/ Non CS S1/D4 & Sertifikat Diklat Berjenjang
2. Pengawas TK Civil Servant/ Non CS S1/D4 & Sertifikat Diklat Berjenjang
3. Tenaga Administrasi Non CS SMA/equivalent
PTK PAUD Non-formal a. Educators 1. Educator for KB (Pendidik
KB)
Non CS S1/D4 & Certificate Intermediate/ Advanced Course
2. Assistant Educator for KB/
SPS
Non CS D2/SMA & Certificate Basic/
Intermediate Course 3. Caregiver in Day Care
(Pengasuh TPA)
Non CS SMA & Certificate Intermediate/ Advanced Course
4. Pamong Belajar CS S1/D4 & Certificate
Intermediate/ Advance Course
5. Instructor Non CS S1/D4 & Certificate
Intermediate/ Advanced Course
6. Tutor Non CS D2/SMA & Certificate Basic/
Intermediate Course b. Education
Personnel
1. Manager of ECED service (Pengelola Satuan PAUD)
Non PNS S1/D4 & Sertifikat Diklat Berjenjang
Inspector PNS S1/D4 & Sertifikat Diklat
Berjenjang
Administrative personnel PNS/Non PNS S1/D4 & Sertifikat Diklat Berjenjang
Security PNS/Non PNS SMA & Sertifikat Diklat Dasar