Access to early childhood education

The impact of pre-primary school education will be significant in the future as it affects children’s success in primary school and eventually, their lifelong learning, says an expert.

Save the Children’s education advisor, Lusi Margiyani, said children with pre-primary school education had made significantly larger gains in primary education compared to those who did not obtain such an education.
Children with early childhood education were familiar with learning so they were more confident in their abilities, she said.

“Children grow rapidly during the early childhood period. Proper interventions, such as boosting literacy skills, are crucial in this period because the impact of a failure to carry out a timely intervention cannot be corrected in later years,” said Lusi on the sidelines of a journalist visit in Atambua, Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Tuesday.

NTT is one of four provinces, including Papua, West Nusa Tenggara, and West Sulawesi, with the highest illiteracy rate in Indonesia.

For the 2012-2013 period, Save the Children has piloted Literacy Boost, a program that aims to accelerate literacy skills, particularly in reading fluency, in Belu.

Literacy Boost is designed to improve the quality of early childhood education, comprising education in pre-primary schools and early classes (grades 1 to 3) in primary schools.

Pre-primary school education is not compulsory in Indonesia. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of children under 6-years-old do not have access to that type of education. However, it is crucial for the development of social, cognitive and motor skills of pre-school aged children.

“More resources need to be allocated to support access to early childhood education,” said Lusi.