More Child-Friendly Schools Needed: Ministry
Jakarta. The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection calls for more child-friendly schools to open in 2017.
"Currently, only 1,022 schools in the country can be categorized as 'child-friendly.' We hope in 2017 there will be more," Lenny N. Rosalin of the ministry's child growth department said on Tuesday (20/12).
She added that it is not easy to establish such schools, as they do not only need good teachers, but also an appropriate infrastructure.
"They require right human resources, well-designed learning processes, proper facilities, infrastructure, canteens, playgrounds and safe equipment," she said.
According to Lenny, especially the playgrounds, which are often made of concrete, are dangerous for children. Libraries too have been seen as unsafe, as they often do not provide good lighting for reading — one of the main reasons of poor vision in children.
"Windows in libraries are shut, the lighting is dim, no wonder our kids have bad eyesight," Lenny said.
The ministry hopes that child-friendly schools will be developed under its child-friendly towns program.
According to the program's criteria, so far only Denpasar in Bali, Surabaya in East Java and Solo in Central Java are close to become such towns.
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