Does Preschool Education in Indonesia Meet the Quality Standards?

摘要

Assessment in early childhood education is essential for it could help teachers to understand children's developmental progress in learning, and enable caregivers to determine how well they perform in their job. This study is designed to observe and assess the preschool education in Subang, Indonesia to determine whether the Indonesian children receive a quality educational environment. There are five kindergartens participated in this study. The study adapts the early childhood education rating scale-revised (ECERS-R) published by Harms, Clifford, and Cryer (1998). The instrument consists of five subscales, namely: space and furnishings, personal care, language reasoning, activities, and interaction. Inside these subscales, there are 37 items with four-point scale in which each has a description of 1 (inadequate), 2 (minimal), 3 (good), and 4 (excellent). The researcher carried out the observation and assessment by using the check list 'Yes' if the dimension meets the determined criteria, and 'No' if the dimension does not meet the criteria. The results show that the preschool educational environment in Subang, Indonesia does not meet the criteria of the ECERS-R, especially the language and reasoning and interaction.