VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Tomorrow on November 20, 2019, the world communities commemorate World Children’s Day. This commemoration is to promote the welfare of children throughout the world. The aim is to respect the rights that must be received by a child. World Children's Day was established by the United Nations -UN in 1954. Five years later, in 1959, the UN adopted the declaration of children's rights and set November 20 as World Children's Day. Under the Convention on the Rights of Children, those under the age of 18 are children.

Indonesia has high expectations for children today. The theme of the commemoration of Indonesia's Independence Day this year, "Excellent Human Resources, and Advanced Indonesia" is one of the proofs. Those who are at the age of the child today are expected and directed to become excellent human resources to bring Indonesia to be more advanced. The challenges and hopes to make Indonesian excellent people must be acknowledged by all relevant stakeholders such as parents, teachers, government officials and environmentalists.

The government of Indonesia, through the Ministry of Education and Culture is committed to freeing the education unit to design innovations in education sector. Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, Nadiem Makarim in his remarks at the 107th anniversary of Muhammadiyah in Yogyakarta on Monday (11/18) said that his side wants to continue to proclaim and advance character education. One of them has been done through Early Childhood Education -PAUD.

Through the PAUD, there are five main values of character to be built. They are religiosity, nationalism, independence, mutual cooperation, and integrity. These values are expected to strengthen Indonesian children into human resources who do not give up easily in facing challenges. Excellent human resources must be formed since the golden period of children. For Indonesia, it is not just awareness about this that must be strengthened, but concrete actions that must be taken. It is hoped that through early childhood education carried out in more than 230 thousand education units or schools throughout Indonesia, generations of religious, nationalist, independent, strongly cooperative and highly integrated will be created. Of course, the character that is built from an early age must develop even better in the next level of education. Each education unit must continue to innovate in a bid to motivate every student to develop their abilities, skills and characters to be the frontline that will bring Indonesia to reach Indonesia Golden 2045.

With the efforts of all related stakeholders, hopefully the Indonesian children today will become not only the leaders of Indonesia, but also the world’s leaders. Happy World Children's Day!