Early childhood education still a luxury for most Indonesians Santi W.E. Soekanto Contributor Jakarta

Ridha turned five late last year and was bored with kindergarten, so his parents devised ways to enroll him in a neighborhood elementary school in Depok, despite being too young.

He soon enjoyed the lessons, but could not cope with the bullies. One day, one of the big boys tried to take his lunchbox and money. Ridha fled and refused to return even after much cajoling from his mother and teacher.

"He is not ready for elementary school yet. He is not mature enough," his exasperated teacher commented. "It would be better to send him back to kindergarten."

After much consultation, the parents finally returned Ridha to his preschool class. Ridha, who began reading and counting when he was four and no longer enjoyed a class in which everyone else was only beginning to recognize the alphabet, rebelled. He refused to attend either school and insisted on staying home, reading and watching television.

Ridha is actually more fortunate than many other children of his age because of his head start. His father is a writer and his mother is a highly educated homemaker, so both understand the importance of giving children an early start in education.

"I didn't teach Ridha to read. I encouraged him to scribble and learn the alphabet on my bedroom wall," his mother said. "Naturally, he soon got bored with preschool, where everyone was only expected to learn to share their lunch and play."

Ridha is also more fortunate than some 10.1 million children, or 83 percent of Indonesia's 12.2 million children between the ages of four and six, who do not have access to preschool education.

That means, only a measly 17 percent of children of preschool age are now in preschools, according to Dr Fasli Jalal of the Ministry of National Education.

Poverty and low availability of educational services are usually blamed for this fact. According to a recent statistic, of the 42,000 preschools across the country only 112 of them are state preschools, while the rest are privately run, causing a diverse range of quality and approach.

In East Java, for example, some 87 percent of the four million children under six years old do not have access to preschool facilities. "This is a serious problem, which needs to be tackled because it involves the future of our children," Fasli said.

It would take some time for Ridha's parents to convince him to return to school, but his case provides an apt illustration of the problems facing parents of pre-schoolers. The quirky nature of child development means that no matter how much we, as a community, try, there is no blueprint education program that could meet all the needs of all children. The existing program only meets some of the needs of some of the children.

The government has shown a commitment to improve not only accessibility but also the quality of our preschool facilities by establishing the Directorate of Early Education (known as PADU) in the Ministry of National Education in March 2001 under the current leadership of Dr Hutomo. In a seminar in Surabaya in February, he was quoted by the media as blaming the poor quality of preschool education on the poor welfare of the teachers.

"Preschool teachers should make more than university lecturers," he said. "I will fight my best to solve this problem."

The government defines preschool education as a program to assist physical, mental development and growth outside the family, before children enter elementary school. "It provides a cornerstone for the development of attitudes, knowledge, skills and creativity that a child needs to adjust to their environment, and for their future growth and development."

Preschool education, however, is not a precondition for entry to elementary school. Does anyone know the ministry has decreed the content of preschool education to be the following: "The development of Pancasila morality, religion, discipline, language skills, thinking ability, creativity, emotional skills, social skills and physical education"?

The existing forms of preschool are kindergarten for children between four and six, play group for those at least three years old, day care for the under three, and other facilities that are approved by the Ministry of Education, which is also in charge of the supervision of the learning process.

No parent or expert is in any disagreement about the importance of preschool education and the role of its teachers for a child's later development. Preschool teachers are "parent- surrogate, servant and playmate" all rolled into one, says Edi Warsidi, a preschool teacher in Bandung in an article at Pikiran Rakyat.

The sad thing is that not many parents and experts agree with the statement that the quality of our preschool education is high. Members of the Organization of Pre-school Education Facilities (GOPTKI) agreed in March that providing good preschool education is a tall order when facilities often just consist of a makeshift classroom.

Suhartini Hartono of GOPTKI claims many preschools do not even have enough space for a playground. "It's difficult to meet the requirements of a good kindergarten, which is that it should be built on a plot of land that should cover at least 3,000 square meters," she said, adding that not many kindergartens have enough support material for teaching either.

There are of course kindergartens that meet all the criteria for good preschool education. Parents, however, face another long list of hindrances before their children can enter them. One Islamic kindergarten in the Depok area is famous because parents believe it offers a "quality curriculum with ample playground space" but parents have to fork out up to Rp 4 million to enroll and more than Rp 80,000 in monthly tuition fees. In another famous Islamic kindergarten in South Jakarta, children as young as two years old are placed in long waiting lists for eventual enrollment when they reach the age of four.

Low availability and accessibility are only two of the problems facing Indonesia's preschool education. Another problem is the oft-mentioned poor quality, blamed on poor educational facilities for teachers and poor welfare. In fact, there are temporary teachers who are paid between Rp 20,000 and Rp 50,000 per month, according to Kompas. That's US$2 per month!

There is also the question of the 1994 curriculum delineated by the government, which decrees that no reading and writing skills are to be taught at preschool facilities. "Teachers and administrators find that difficult to comply with," according to Megawati Zainuri, the owner and teacher of At-Taqwa Kindergarten in Cimanggis, Depok, "because most elementary schools now demand new students be able to read and write."

Megawati, who asks parents to pay only Rp 250,000 to enroll their child and Rp 10,000 per month for tuition, teaches her students reading and writing. She admitted that once a Ministry of Education supervisor scolded her for doing that, but pointed out that now most kindergartens teach reading and writing. "A lot depends on the approach. If you force a preschool child to sit quietly in the classroom and read, you're in for a difficult time," she said.

"I support early learning of the alphabet and Arabic characters," Megawati said. "But only as long you allow children to do it in a fun way, which allows them to continue playing as well. Only then will learning not become a routine chore for the child."

One parent once wrote to the teachers of a private school in Bali, praising them for doing "more than strive for academic achievement, a school that encourages and nurtures personal growth, a school that helps to create happy, confident, well- balanced children.

"People are different and a school should embrace this truth, it should encourage diversity and nurture the individual. It is no better to be a great artist than it is to be a great scientist, builder, dressmaker or farmer. What is important is that we help kids to know what they want to do, what makes them passionate, what has meaning for them.

"Most importantly, school should equip kids with tools to understand themselves and those around them. By learning to understand themselves, they will learn compassion for others, they will be kinder to themselves and others."