Do
we need a parenting unit in education ministry?
Sri Lestari Yuniarti ; An
alumnus of the University of Wollongong, Australia,
who works at the Culture and Elementary and Secondary
Education Ministry’s
directorate of early childhood education;
She is a lecturer at the teachers’ training college of
STKIP Kusuma Negara in Jakarta
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JAKARTA
POST, 07 Februari 2015
Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister
Anies Baswedan has announced a plan to develop a Parenting Education
Directorate (Direktorat Keayahbundaan). Those who oppose the plan say that
government does not need to involve itself that far into private matters.
Every parent has their own values in raising their
children. However, given the important role of parents in guiding their
children’s education, advocates of the plan say children spend most or a lot
of their time at home.
The minister has said parents play an important role in a
child’s upbringing, but are largely unprepared for this role. True, most
schools do not provide special programs related to parenting education.
Typically parents are invited to gather in school on parents day, or in
outing activities. They are still the “other” in students’ lives.
Thus government intervention in parenting education is
viewed as important. Structurally the new directorate would be under the
Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Non formal and Informal
since constitutionally informal education is family education, including
parents.
The minister stated that the directorate would not form a
parents’ school, but develop a reference for parents to learn about
parenting.
Internationally, the enthusiasm for greater parental
involvement particularly in early childhood education has generated a
burgeoning literature. Governmental practice on parental involvement in
education is also enormous.
A study in 2008 found that the governments of the UK,
Canada and Finland for instance, have exemplified how to involve parents in
their children’s education by providing service-oriented policies relevant to
parental education and support.
Particularly, parental education policies are not typically
stand-alone policies. For example the UK places parental education within the
remit of the Department for Education and Skills.
This Department is responsible for umbrella policies
covering a variety of activities related to education and training and the
creation of a skilled workforce.
Meanwhile in Canada, parental education is vested in
Health Canada which provides funding for programs like the Canada Prenatal
Nutrition Program, which focuses on mothers of young children and their
capability to provide a healthy environment for their children.
On the other hand, Finland’s policies relevant to parental
education are within the ministry of social affairs and health.
Finland’s government sees that parents need to be
supported in their role as the providers of a safe environment for their
children, rather than children being supported via their parents. In Finland
and the UK, programs are provided and operated by local agencies, yet
sponsored and monitored by the central government.
However, none of the countries studied was found to have a
specific policy targeting parents and their support and education
entitlement, and in many cases parenting rights and responsibilities were not
well defined.
Except in Finland where parents’ responsibilities with
regard to their child’s upbringing are set out in the Child Custody and Right
Access Act 1984.
In Indonesia, parenting education is usually talked about
by the middle and upper classes such as seminars, training and workshops.
They dominate the discourse on knowledge and skills of
parenting. Meanwhile the poor seem to be bringing up their children the same
way their parents did.
Both father and mother are busy earning money. Moreover,
teachers in good to poor quality education centers have said children of
well-educated parents often lead the class. These children are mostly
creative and critical.
But it is also often students from this social group who
are involved in fighting, drug abuse, gadget addiction and poor learning
outcomes.
Thus family or parenting education and support is not only
a matter of parents’ preferences on how to raise their children but related
to many other matters such as social, economic and parents’ educational
background.
In term of the government’s intervention, a wider
diversity in the services available to parents, a proactive approach is
needed to raise parents’ awareness of the available services, among other
things.
As scholars on education have said, the challenge for
policymakers is not merely what works at the level of individual parenting
programs and interventions, but a policy approach that addresses in a
consistent way the multiple risks that adversely influence parenting, and
enhance opportunities that promote parents’ resilience.
Based on the constitution, education comprises formal
(school) and non formal (out-of school) education such as community learning
centers, playgroups, course institutions etc.
Policies regarding parenting education need to empower
programs related to students’ lives. Both academic and non academic.
The new directorate should also not overlap with other
ministries or institutions’ core matters such as the National Population and
Family Planning Board (BKKBN), Social Affairs Ministry or the ministry’s
early childhood education unit. ●
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