Payment in heaven: Can early childhood education policies help women too?

Abstract

Based on research and activism on early childhood education and care in the area of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, we argue that the Indonesian government’s focus on early childhood has come at a cost to local women. Community-based early childhood programs are delivered by women whose work is unpaid or underpaid. Although early childhood education in the form of kindergarten has long existed in Indonesia, its extension to the very young through Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini or early childhood education programs for children aged 0–8 years is more recent. Yet, there are many contradictions in this attention to the very young child. While the programs are designed to empower young children and improve their chances of success in education, the community-based programs promoted by the government are delivered through the work of women who may be denied these same benefits. Based on our separate researches, local women offer their services in early childhood education for a variety of reasons: they believe in these programs, they feel pressured to support their communities, or they desire to improve their own chances, and often all three. Yet, the opportunity to gain more education and to become a certified teacher is extremely limited for these women. As a result, they are trapped in unskilled, low, or no-waged work. While this contradiction can be described as a result of neoliberal policy, it has been the long-standing practice of the Indonesian state to depend on women’s “volunteered” labor to deliver social service programming. Here, we challenge whether this is “neoliberal” policy or just a continued disregard for the value of the care labor in social reproduction and the simultaneous relegation of women to the “informal” sphere. We ask, what kind of policy options exist for linking the improvement of children’s education and women’s education simultaneously?

PAUD is My Second Child: How Early Childhood in Indonesia Strives to Develop

“…The gender divisions have put men as breadwinners while women are more likely to participate in domestic works, mostly unpaid (Hoyt & Simon, 2017). Indeed, the dichotomy between male and female jobs put women to 'feminise' PAUD with poor payment (Marpinjun, 2009, as cited in Newberry, 2012), especially women in poor areas pay the cost of the policy (Newberry & Marpinjun, 2018). Javanese culture encourages more on community and family, instead of focusing on individualism (Adamson, 2007), encouraging them to contribute more than it should be.…”

“…In addition, there are pressures for PKK women to contribute, the intention to have a better chance, and the intention to improve children's development and all of three (Newberry & Marpinjun, 2018). Still, they have an extremely limited chance to obtain higher education or to be certified teachers and trapped in this job.…”

“…It is undeniable that PAUD teachers experienceboth pride and exhaustion in selfsustaining their schools (Newberry & Marpinjun, 2018). Their sacrifices for early childhood education should be paid off.…”

Negotiating local and glocal discourse in kindergarten: Stories from Indonesia

“…One of the drivers behind the setting up of the kindergarten was, as mentioned before, the government's policy of one village, one ECE centre. The system has encouraged volunteerism in the community; it is mainly women who set up kindergartens in villages in Indonesia (Newberry & Marpinjun, 2018). The kindergarten tuition fee is Rp 5,000.00 (EUR 0.31), but many parents have difficulty affording it.…”

Does Preschool Education in Indonesia Meet the Quality Standards?

“…In the Indonesian context, there are a wide range of research on preschool education that focus on various topics. For example, there are research on the international influence upon the Indonesian preschool education (Yulindrasari & Djoehaeni, 2019), the internationalization of early childhood education in Indonesia (Adriany, 2018), early formal education teacher competence in the learning of dance art in kindergarten (Wulandari & Kustiawan, 2018), the impact of Indonesian neo-liberal educational reform on kindergarten teachers' professionalism (Yulindrasari & Ujianti, 2018), and whether early childhood education policies are in favor of Indonesian women (Newberry & Marpinjun, 2018). Specifically, Brinkman et al (2016) examine the relationship between preschool quality and children's early development by using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scalerevised (ECERS_R) to measure the quality and the Early Development Instrument (EDI).…”