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policy in ECE on teachers who are mostly women. Throughout this essay, I argue that the Indonesian ECE movement‗s adoption of neoliberal principles has lead to further exploitation
of women in this field.
2. Neoliberalism in education
Early definition of neoliberalism emphasized economic policy characterized by privatization of government‗s enterprises, deregulation or less government‗s intervention in the economy,
and competitiveness or the deployment of market mechanisms Cox, 1996. However, Ferguson 2009 explains that the term neoliberalism has been applied to diverse phenomena.
This essay will use
Ferguson‗s definition of neoliberalism as ―a regime of policy and practices‖ that works through and at the same time produces neoliberal agents Ferguson,
2009: 170. Within a neoliberal regime, the government runs like a business, handing over the function of the state to private parties of subcontractors for profit Ferguson, 2007. People
are also seen as economic agents, who have skills, traits, marketable capacities and freedom of choice Gershon, 2011. Both the government and citizens are autonomous market actors.
Citizens are constructed as
―active‖ and ―responsible‖ to achieve governmental results without any direct state intervention Ferguson, 2009: 172. In this context the government-
citizen relationship is a partnership with a distribution of responsibility and risk to maintain each party‗s autonomy in the market Gershon, 2011. For this essay, I focus on teachers, the
community and students; teachers and the community are the responsible subjects and students are the subjects in whom skills and traits should be invested in and nurtured to
produce ‗neoliberal agents‗. In the field of education, Robertson 2007 underlines three key principles of a neoliberal
reform. The first one is the transformation of the mandate the objective of education. A neoliberal mandate of education is to develop competitive economic actors who are efficient,
creative, and problem solvers. The second is the forms of capacity or the means through which the mandate is going to be achieved. Capacity is related to funding and human
resources teacher. Neoliberal reforms emphasise the achievement of a mandate with the most efficient budget. Education providers are usually encouraged to generate additional
income as the government limits its financial support. One strategy of cost efficiency is the reformulation of the teachers salary system. Performance-based pay is usually applied in the
reform. The third strategy is the mechanism of education governance. These are indicators of neoliberal governance in education: outcome-based funding; some services are decentralized
and others are centralized, competition among educational institutions; introduction of a profit oriented private education provider, and multi-
national firms‗ involvement in education Robertson, 2007. I will unpack the policy of Indonesian ECE movement accordingly to the
above principles explained by Robertson 2007.
3. Neoliberalism in the Indonesian Early Childhood Education Movement
a. The Education Mandate
The mandate of ECEC development in Indonesia corresponds with the neoliberal mandate of education. The Grand Design of ECEC development in Indonesia, established in 2011,
inscribes the mandate of ECEC as instilling in Indonesian children with the
dasa citra
ten ideals as the foundation of
―high-quality future human resources. The ten ideals are that children will be faithful to one God, pious, noble, healthy, intelligent, honest, responsible,
creative, confident, and nationalist.mTeoet the criteria of being of ‗h
igh quality‗ they will
also be globalclyompetitive MoNE, 2011. The term used to refer to future Indonesian citizens is ‗human resource‗. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, this term means
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‗a group of people who are able to do work‗. The use of this term implies that children are seen as part of the potential workforce for future national economic growth. The emphasis on
global competitiveness also means that the future citizens should have skills and capacity to participate in the global market. Children are viewed as an asset that should be managed and
developed. This is in line with Gershon‗s 2011 explanation about neoliberal self, that a neoliberal self ownsndalebuof skills and traits to be managed.
Another important aspect of the neoliberal self is autonomy Gershon, 2011. The Learning approach adopted in the ECE development standards in Indonesia MoNE, 2009 is child-
centered pedagogy. Ryan 2005 defines child-centered pedagogy as education with a curriculum that corresponds to the unique characteristics, needs, and interest of each child.
Children are seen as independent and active learners and the teacher‗s authority is viewed as hindering
children‗s potential to explore and make sense of their world. Within a child- centered learning approach, children are free to choose their own activity according to their
individual interest. Therefore, the teacher is only a facilitator in this approach Ryan, 2005:99. Children here are constructed as a self-regulating and rational individuals free from
other‗s control Walkerdine, 1990. This construction is connected to the concept of neoliberal agency and the view that people should act autonomously, rationally, and
responsibly in free choice decisions Gershon, 2011: 539-540.
b. The Form of Capacity
Robertson 2007 underlines two aspects of capacity: financial capacity and the teachers‗
capacity. Robertson 2007 argues that one of the characteristics of neoliberal policy in education is budget cuts or fund efficiency. There have not been budget cuts to education in
Indonesia, Since 2005 the government increased education budget to twenty percent of total National Development Budget and Spending NDBS MoSS, 2009. However, public
spending on education as a percentage of GDP is decreasing every year, from 3.5 in 2009 to 3.0 in 2010, and 2.8 in 2011 The World Bank, 2014. This could mean less government
commitment on education and deregulation in education, especially in higher education sector. In 2012, the government has enacted new law about higher education that opens up
privatization in higher education The Republic of Indonesia Law No. 122012.
One significant reform since 2005 is teacher professionalization which aims to improve the quality of teachers. Taubman 2009 argues that improving teacher quality is one
of the key markers of neoliberal doctrine in education. The low pay and low status of teaching in general have triggered the government to reform the teaching profession starting in 2005
through the Republic of Indonesian Law Number 142005 about Teachers and Lecturers, the Government Regulation Number 742008 about teachers, and the Minister of National
Education Regulation Number 162007 about Standard of Teach
er‗s Academic Qualification and Competencies. I would argue that this law and regulations aim to professionalize
teaching. According to Larson 1977 , professionalization is a systematic effort to institutionalize a set of cultural and technical resources into a system of work for financial
benefits. Professionalization involves specified higher education, skill enhancement, and
professional training and development Boyd, 2013. This law regulates teacher‗s educational qualifications, competencies,
teachers‗ management and development, and of course about additional allowance to improve teachers‗ take-home pay.
One of the most significant strategies of teacher professionalization in Indonesia is the mechanisms of certification. Certification is conducted using a quality assurance mechanism
Chang et al., 2014. According to Osgood‗s 2006 neoliberal professionalization, emphasizes masculine attributes such as rationality, competitiveness, and individualism as its
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standard. Teachers are assessed accordingly to certain criteria such as educational and training experience, the period of employment as a teacher, their achievements, and competencies.
This assessment is document and test based. Not all teachers pass this assessment. It is highly competitive. Teachers who have better documented paper-based portfolio are more likely to
pass regardless of their performance in class.
c. The Governance of ECE
According to Robertson 2007: 12 there are several indicators of neoliberal governance in education. They are outcome-based funding; some services are decentralized and others are
centralized, competition among educational institutions; introduction of profit oriented private education provider, and multi-
national firms‗ involvement in education. ECE services in Indonesia are organized in such a way as open to competition
between the services. According to the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 202003 about the National Education System, early-childhood education is not included in the formal education
system. However, ECE is divided into three forms of organization, formal ECE, non-formal ECE, and informal ECE. Prior to ECE movement in 2001, there were only two categories of
ECE; ECE that used a school system for children age 4-6 now called formal ECE and non-
school system for children age 0-3 now called non-formal ECE. The division was based on the age of the children. In 2001, the government established
the Directorate of Early- Childhood Education
within
the Directorate General of Non-Formal Education in the Ministry of Education and Culture
. Since then, the distinction of formal and non-formal ECE is only based on who manages the institution of ECE. The distinction by age has become
blurred as non-formal ECE also serves children age 4-6. This has resulted in high competition between formal and non-formal ECE. The competition ranges from competition of getting
more students and government funding to oppor tunity for teacher‗s professional development.
Later in 2011, the government made a change in the bureaucracy of ECE. All ECE formal, non-formal, and informal are organized in one new directorate that is the
Directorate of Early-Childhood, Non-formal, Informal Education
. Since then ECE refers to all kinds of ECE, formal, non-formal, and informal. However, the distinction between formal ECE and
non-formal ECE persists in the public discourse, so does the competition. Establishing a non-formal ECE is easier and simpler than a formal ECE. However, it
is still subject to accreditation. Non-formal ECE can be organized by a community without any binding standards. This is why the types of ECE in Indonesia have become very diverse.
The following table is a brief summary of ECE types in Indonesia:
Kindergart en
TKRA Formal
Play group KB
non- formal
Childcare TPA
non- formal
Other form of
playgroup SPS:
non- formal
Integrated Service Post
Posyandu non-formal
Program for Family with
Young Children BKB
non-formal
Child Age year old
4-6 2-4
3 mo-6 yo 2-4
0-6 0-5
Target Child
Child Child
Child Child and
Mother Mother
Focus Pre-
primary education
Child developme
nt Care
service for children of
Child developmen
t; Health care
service combined
Parenting education,
combined with
201 Child
developme nt and
school readiness
working parents;
supplement ed with
child developmen
t supplement
ed with additional
program with
parenting education
child development
activities during meeting
Opening hours
5-6 daysweek
150-180 minuteday
Minimum 2
daysweek 150-180
minuteday 5-6
daysweek 8-10
hoursday Minimum 2
daysweek 2
daysmonth 2 hoursday
2 daysmonth 2 hoursday
Responsib Ministry of Ministry of Ministry of Ministry of
Ministry of Ministry of
le Education
Education Social
Education Health
– Women‗s
governme and
and Welfare
– and Culture
technical Empowerment
nt Culture
– Culture
– care and
– Policy support,
and Child agencies
for TK policy and
social and
supervision Protection-
Ministry of guideline service
guideline policy
Religious developme
component, developmen Ministry of
Affairs –
nt supervision
t Home
National for RA
Ministry of Affairs
Population and Education
works Family Planning
and Culture together
Board Badan – policy
with Family Kependudukan
and Welfare and
dan Keluarga guideline
Empowerme Berencana developmen
nt NasionalBKKB
t Movement
N
Source: Yulindrasari, 2012 Picture 1. ECE Types and Forms in Indonesia
According to the ECE Grand Design Indonesia targets 86.5 GER by 2025. This means that Indonesia needs an additional of 30,000-42,000 ECE services a year to reach the target. To
achieve the goal the government has relied so much on the non-government providers, both profit oriented private provider and community based provider. According to 20092010
statistic there are only 1.616 state- owned ECE from total 67.550 formal ECE in Indonesia Central Education Statistic, 20092010. Less regulated non-formal ECE has made it the
largest contributor to the increase of GER 36.51 from the total ECE GER 53.70 MoNE, 2011. It also has made a wide gap of quality in the diverse ECE services. Many international
franchise education corporations establish ECEs, especially in big cities, with a very sophisticated set of facilities Newberry, 2012. On the other hand, there are also many ECE
services with very limited facilities Hasan et al., 2013. Parents are treated as neoliberal agents who act as rational and autonomous consumers to choose the service at their own risks.
4. The Impact of the Neoliberal ECE Movement on Women
