Indonesian children’s voices of the school-from-home policy

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes Indonesian children’s happiness feeling and preferences toward school-from-home activities and setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online interviews and drawing-telling activities were used to obtain the data from 334 children aged four to six years. The findings revealed that more than half of the children were happy with the school-from-home policy. They stated that they were allowed to conduct unstructured free play at home besides completing the assignments from the teachers. Older children, 6 years old, preferred the school setting, as they could get themselves engaged in social interaction with their surroundings. In conclusion, adults should consider children’s voices, as part of an effort in enhancing their academic well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Young children
• learning preferences
• happiness
• school-from-home policy
• COVID-19 pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universitas Negeri Semarang [grant number SP DIPA-023.17.2.677507/2021].