Homeless families in Indonesia: Early childhood education strategies and responses

¶ … Family Studies in the Early Childcare Education Context

Contexts and Issues in Family Studies in the Early Childcare Education Context Issue Review: Homeless Families in Indonesia

Contexts and Issues in Family Studies in the Early Childcare Education Context

Issue Review: Homeless Families in Indonesia

The purpose of this work is to first explain the reasons examination of this issue has been chosen, to discuss and review the topic and make links to journal articles. Secondly, from reading and reflection on this topic, identify a range of practical strategies that teachers, preschools & schools could introduce that would be helpful for families and children in relation to that matter. Finally this work will identify a range of new government or community strategies, policies or responses that are believed appropriate for families in relation to this topic.

Section One

. In one report entitled, "Height and weight as a reflection of the nutritional situation of school-aged children working and living in the streets of Jakarta." written by Gross, et al. (1996) is that the, "nutritional status of 89 school-aged children living and working on the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia was assessed. Findings were that seventy-nine percept of the children were children "on" the street who still had regular contact with their families whereas only 21% of the children were "of" the street who had only remote or no contact with their families." (Gross, 1996) Further stated in the findings was the mother was more likely to be present in the home of the children on the street than in the home of the children of the street. Average earning of children as between 2000 and 3000 rup8iah/day in USS1 + 2000 Indonesian Rupiah) The distribution of height-for-age relative to the NCHS reference standard indicated that 52% of the children were not experiencing the same standards in growth rate as generally would occur at this stage.

Section Three

Stated is that "The advent of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997), and its widespread acceptance as a guide to both the nature and quality of early childhood programs has also resulted in an emphasis on developmental psychology as the underpinning of early childhood teacher education programs (Dahlberg, et al., 1999)" (Dockett, 2005) as cited by McClure (2002) is that, "

"Competent and fair professional service delivery helps build the public trust essential for effective markets and civil societies. This public trust is one a nation's greatest cultural assets. It must be renewed with each generation. Children must be protected from the theft of this public trust through high levels of competence, clear goals, adequate incentives and Ready to Learn, swift sanctions against corruption. Of all sectors, education is the public service closest to children's experience. Indonesian parents need to ferociously protect public services for their children, so that later on their children will not only ferociously protect public services for their own children, but for their aging parents as well."

Summary and Conclusion

Teachers are in the unique position to make a difference in the lives of children in Indonesia through directing the child and parents to the appropriate program such as the feeding program by which the child is able to maintain nutrition which supports the ability to learn. Teachers are social-change agents as well as being instructors in the classroom in today's world. Remembering this will propel the teacher towards the attainment of excellence in the provision of educational benefits to the students in their classroom.