Perceptions of Preschool Teachers on Children's School Readiness in Purwakarta Regency

Abstract

School readiness is the condition of a child who already has the ability and skills to participate in learning activities at school including physical readiness, mental social-emotional abilities, the ability to interact and communicate, and knowledge readiness. This ability is a determinant of the success of children's learning processes and outcomes. The school readiness program for children is carried out from the age of 4-7 years through the transition stages of education. The teacher's perception of school readiness is fundamental because perception will determine the teacher's knowledge, understanding, and actions in an effort to create a quality learning process and output. The purpose of this research is to describe the perceptions of preschool teachers on children's school readiness in Purwakarta Regency. The method in this research is descriptive qualitative. The data collection process was carried out by interviewing teachers from 8 preschool in Purwakarta City. The material obtained from the interviews was transcribed and analyzed. The results of the research analysis have shown that age and literacy are considered the most ideal standard in determining children's school readiness. This is also reinforced by the selection to enter elementary school, especially favorite and competitive schools which require that prospective students already have the ability to read, write, and count. Therefore, parents provide strong interventions for preschool institutions to provide literacy and arithmetic learning programs. There is no cooperation between school and family because the teacher believes that school is the only institution that develops children's readiness to go to elementary school.