“The golden period does not repeat itself. Much like planting, we will reap the result in the future based on what we planted or gave to children at an early age," he remarked.
"Thus, this is a golden opportunity for leaders to have quality human resources in the future," he said during the “Village's Role in Implementing PAUD Guideline Unveiling,” which was held online on Friday.
Meanwhile, another ministry official, Rosfita Roesli, said that early childhood education is a part of the Village Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on quality village education.
"Secondly, PAUD is also part of the Holistic-Integrative Early Childhood Development (PAUD HI), since PAUD institutions are expected to establish cooperation with various services that exist in villages," she pointed out.
Further, early childhood education is also a part of the effort to expedite stunting reduction and improve people's quality of life through education.
Villages can support the implementation of early childhood education through financing, in accordance with the regulation issued by the Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Ministry every year on village fund usage priority.
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Moreover, village governments can also establish partnerships within the village itself and with district and city governments.
At the village level, village governments can enable cooperation across services related to early childhood and collect data on children aged 0–6 years, which would serve as a foundation for village planning, Roesli said.
Moreover, village governments can improve the provision of early childhood education services, support the provision of essential facilities and infrastructure, and support village regulation issuance.
"Usually, this village regulation is needed as a reference point so that the village budget can be allocated for early childhood education," she explained.
Other support that can be provided includes helping PAUD teachers to learn together through the PAUD Group activity, she added.
Moreover, village governments can ensure that PAUD teachers use the Merdeka Belajar (Freedom in Learning) platform so that they can download learning tools and conduct independent study.
"This is undertaken so that in every Village Musrenbang (Development Planning Meeting), there is a proposal discussed to support early childhood education," she informed.
"This proposal certainly has to be formulated based on the data on how many children that do not yet have access and how villages can help so that PAUD institutions can be quality PAUD," she added.
Meanwhile, for partnerships at the level of districts and cities, village governments as well as district and city governments should have the same target for establishing cooperation.
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Translator: Suci Nurhaliza, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Suharto
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