Jakarta. Raising Indonesia’s future changemakers starts from a young age, and this brings out the importance of nurturing emotional well-being in a child’s early years.

The National Socioeconomic Survey and the Basic Health Research revealed that many Indonesian children aged between 36-59 months were falling behind at essential developmental milestones.

Areas that the young ones struggled with included literacy, physical abilities, social-emotional skills, and learning facilities. These statistics are harrowing amidst Indonesia’s ambitions to become a high-income economy by its centennial in 2045.

In other words, the kids we see today would have grown up by then, and be part of the country’s workforce. Some of these children might even grow up to be Indonesia’s policymakers or even businesspeople who will drive the national economic growth. But if Indonesia wants to develop its human capital, it will have to invest in its early childhood education.

“Children are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. There is no bigger impact that anyone can make for the future than investing in the next generation,” Elaine Kim, the chief executive officer and co-founder of the preschool Trehaus, told a panel discussion in Jakarta on Thursday.

Trehaus -- which already has operations in Singapore and Jakarta -- embraces a child-led, play-based curriculum. It adopts a holistic approach backed by evidence-based pedagogies to foster emotional, social, and cognitive development in children.

According to Elaine, the Trehaus School Jakarta commits to nurturing not just academic potential, but also cultivating a child’s emotional intelligence and a strong sense of self. She added: “We empower children to become confident, compassionate individuals ready  to face the complexities of the world.”

Trehaus has an artificial intelligence or AI-powered edtech platform: the Little Lab which equips teachers to assess each child’s needs through play-based evaluations. This platform tailors lessons to a child’s unique needs and interests.

“Our Little Lab tries to bring access to high-quality early education to as many children as possible. If the government wants to partner with us, we are here,” Elaine said.

Add as a preferred source on Google +