The Sorong Regency Government collaborated with Komunitas Aksi Kemanusiaan Indonesia Foundation (KAKI Foundation) and UNICEF Indonesia to hold training for grade 1 elementary school teachers on "The importance of strengthening the PAUD-SD transition". The aim is that after this training activity, every 1st-grade elementary school teacher is expected to be able to understand the relationship between strengthening the learning transition of PAUD students to elementary school, as well as its relation to fulfilling children's rights in school readiness
In this training activity, it was explained about the role of teachers as educators in schools and the government in the process of transitioning PAUD students to elementary school and that there are still many misunderstandings that exist around early education, from encouragement for children to master calistung quickly and pressure from parents to register their children to various additional courses. In fact, for young children, playing is an important form of learning. Many parents do not realize that calistung is not the only important aspect in children's readiness for school, which needs to be paid attention to help them grow and develop.
Based on the Module provided in Merdeka Mengajar platform, children's readiness for school is based on conditions where children have the foundational abilities for lifelong learning, such as recognizing religious values and character, emotional maturity to participate in learning, social and linguistic readiness to interact with peers and sufficient cognitive maturity to carry out learning such as basic literacy, numeracy and understanding basic things about everyday life.
Teachers as educators in schools are also expected to stop using school readiness as the only assessment to determine whether a child is "ready" or "not ready", because the true goal of learning is to ensure that every child has the right to develop the foundational abilities towards learning lifetime. Teachers can also convey the importance of support from home in communicating with parents/guardians so that children can receive continuous guidance experiences from the educational institution to home.
The government's role is also quite important in implementing how a teacher or educator plays an important role in the PAUD-SD transition process, such as simplifying the curriculum in grade 1 of elementary school, having books that guide students to have number awareness skills (Number sense) by using visual content, publishing Minister of Education and Culture Regulation No 1(2021)Regarding the Admission of New Students, expressly prohibited the calistung test, in the same year it was also published SE about the alignment of PAUD-SD learning, And finally, in 2023 it will be published SE for Education units about PAUD-SD transition.
