giving children on the Border a headstart
The Indonesian government mandates a 12-year compulsory education starting at the primary school level. But there is no similar invocation for early childhood education, a process experts say is crucial to children’s development. According to the Ministry of Education, over five million children in Indonesia have no access to pre-schools (PAUD—Early Childhood Education School). The concern is particularly pressing in Belu Regency—a region that borders Timor-Leste—where there is limited access to quality education. There are only 158 PAUDs for Belu’s 27,000 children, and only 5,000 have enrolled. Save the Children, a non-profit organization, has joined hands with the government and locals, and launched a program in 2014 to improve the regency’s early childhood education. In July, Tempo English visited the Belu Regency in East Nusa Tenggara.
August 22, 2017
Early Education on the Frontier
After the East Timorese referendum in 1999, a number of refugees resettled in the Belu Regency. A non-profit organization and local activists have developed pre-schools in the regency’s resettlement areas.
IN front of a small blue and green building, children formed a circle and began to sing, following their teachers’ instructions. When the song ended, the children stood in two neat lines at the entrance of
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