Indonesia has begun to emerge into middle-income status, yet persistent poverty and stark inequalities continue to affect young children’s development. This book tells the story of Indonesia’s efforts to change the trajectory of development for poor children. Many countries have similar aims, but several aspects of what is reported here are especially valuable and perhaps unique. The study offers data on all aspects of health and development in a sample of rural young children, collected with internationally-validated measures, as well as household information, information about parenting practices including feeding patterns, parent questionnaires, and data on the prevalence and distribution of ECED services. The data reported in this book is based on a sample of more than 6,000 Indonesian children living in 310 poor villages, including two age cohorts (aged 1 and 4 years old when data were first collected on their development in 2009). From the start, the project aimed not only to support service provision but also to support the development of national standards, build national and district capacity, and encourage the establishment of a system of ECED quality assurance, efforts that are still in process. Few such analyses have been done with such a large sample and with multiple measures. These design features allow a high level of confidence in the results that are reported. The lessons from this book will help to inform not only this project’s further implementation but ECED initiatives in Indonesia and around the world. Thus, the results presented in this book are of significance for researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners within and beyond Indonesia. The experiences and research results discussed here are especially relevant for: • Researchers in early childhood development and program evaluation; • Policymakers within and beyond Indonesia; • Providers of early childhood services; • Professional development providers; and • Advocates for quality early childhood services.

Indonesia has begun to emerge into middle-income status, yet persistent poverty and stark inequalities continue to affect young children’s development. This book tells the story of Indonesia’s efforts to change the trajectory of development for poor children. Many countries have similar aims, but several aspects of what is reported here are especially valuable and perhaps unique. The study offers data on all aspects of health and development in a sample of rural young children, collected with internationally-validated measures, as well as household information, information about parenting practices including feeding patterns, parent questionnaires, and data on the prevalence and distribution of ECED services. The data reported in this book is based on a sample of more than 6,000 Indonesian children living in 310 poor villages, including two age cohorts (aged 1 and 4 years old when data were first collected on their development in 2009). From the start, the project aimed not only to support service provision but also to support the development of national standards, build national and district capacity, and encourage the establishment of a system of ECED quality assurance, efforts that are still in process. Few such analyses have been done with such a large sample and with multiple measures. These design features allow a high level of confidence in the results that are reported. The lessons from this book will help to inform not only this project’s further implementation but ECED initiatives in Indonesia and around the world. Thus, the results presented in this book are of significance for researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners within and beyond Indonesia. The experiences and research results discussed here are especially relevant for: • Researchers in early childhood development and program evaluation; • Policymakers within and beyond Indonesia; • Providers of early childhood services; • Professional development providers; and • Advocates for quality early childhood services.

Since the early 2000s, Indonesia has taken a number of steps to prioritize early childhood development - ranging from the inclusion of Early Childhood Development (ECD) in the National Education System Law No. 20 in 2003 to a Presidential Declaration on Holistic and Integrated ECD and the launch of the country's first ever ECD Census in 2011. These policy milestones have occurred in parallel with sustained progress on outcomes included in the Millennium Development Goals, including for child malnutrition, child mortality and universal basic education. Additional progress could be achieved by strengthening ECD policies further. This report presents findings from an assessment of ECD policies and programs in Indonesia based on two World Bank tools: the ECD module of the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) and a guide on essential interventions for investing in young children. Results from the application of both tools to Indonesia are used to suggest a number of policy options for consideration.

The book features an analysis of teacher reform in Indonesia, which entailed a doubling of teacher salaries upon certification. It describes the political economy context in which the reform was developed and implemented, and analyzes the impact of the reform on teacher knowledge, skills, and student outcomes.

Providing a selection of papers presented at ICECE 2018, a biennial conference organised by the Early Childhood Education Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. The conference’s general theme was "Finding Alternative Approaches, Theories, Frameworks, and Practices of Early Childhood Education in the 21th Century." Distinct from other periods of time, the 21st century is characterised by so much knowledge -easy to access but hard to grasp, borderless and hyper-connected society mediated by the internet, high competitiveness -not only within a country but across countries, high mobility, and widening economic discrepancy as neoliberalism has strengthened its influence on every sector of human life. The children of today will face many things that have not yet been invented or discovered, sometimes beyond expectations. Scholars and teachers of early childhood education need to be aware of these astonishing changes. The way children and childhood are seen cannot stay the same, and so does the way children of this century are educated. The conference opened a discussion about finding alternative approaches, theories, and best practices of early childhood education for a rapidly changing and globalised society.

This book offers a critical analysis on Indonesian education by drawing from various critical perspectives and theoretical frameworks to explore persistent challenges and social inequality problems in the education sector. Critical perspectives are important to reveal how education is not a neutral, mechanistic process of cultivating the knowledge and skills of future generation. Instead, it is a battleground in which competing visions, ideologies, discourses, religious values, and political interests struggle for dominance in a given society. In each of the sections, contributors draw upon specific case studies and employ critical theories to analyze power relations or to identify and destabilize underlying structures, dominant discourses, hegemonic knowledge, policies, or practices. Some authors also highlight data evidencing inequities, inequalities, or injustices in Indonesian education system. As a handbook, the emphasis on critical perspectives is useful to identify and evaluate the ‘blind spots’ of dominant policy discourses and their pedagogical consequences. The plurality of critical approaches also means that this book is necessarily multidisciplinary. A unique feature of this book is the fact that most authors are Indonesian academics who bring with them tacit knowledge of practices and issues. Overall, this book enriches the literature by bringing together different disciplinary perspectives such as political science, psychology, international relations, economics, and linguistics to critically examine important issues related to education in Indonesia.

Written to commemorate 30 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights reflects upon the status of children aged 0–8 years around the world, whether they are respected or neglected, and how we may move forward. With contributions from international experts and emerging authorities on children’s rights, Murray, Blue Swadener and Smith have produced this highly significant textbook on young children’s rights globally. Containing sections on policy, along with rights to protection, provision and participation for young children, this book combines discussions of children’s rights and early childhood development, and investigates the crucial yet frequently overlooked link between the two. The authors examine how policy, practice and research could be utilised to address the barriers to universal respect for children, to create a safer and more enriching world for them to live and flourish in. The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights is an essential resource for students and academics in early childhood education, social work and paediatrics, as well as for researchers, policymakers, leaders and practitioners involved in the provision of children’s services and paedeatric healthcare, and international organisations with an interest in or ability to influence national or global policies on children’s rights.