According to Unicef, more than 60 million students in Indonesia have been temporarily out of school due to COVID-19, presenting the country’s education sector with unprecedented challenges. How have schools responded to these challenges? How have children and parents reacted? And what are the likely long-term implications of prolonged home schooling for Indonesian children?

In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, we chat about the impact of Covid-19 on early childhood education in Indonesia. Joining host Dirk Tomsa is Dr Vina Adriany, the Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at the School of Graduate Studies at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bandung.

In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University.

Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app.

Photo credit: ANTARA FOTO/Didik Suhartono/hp.