CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC FACTORS IN DETERMINING THE ONSET OF

FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 1

Cultural, Social, and Economic Factors in Determining the onset of Formal Schooling

Bella C. Urban

The University of Michigan

Psychology 356: Educational Psychology

Professor Cortina

December 10, 2021

CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC FACTORS IN DETERMINING THE ONSET OF
FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 2
Introduction

The age for the appropriate onset of formal education, typically thought of as

kindergarten and first-grade enrollment, is a topic being debated worldwide. One of the reasons

that this starting age is so controversial between nations and countries is that there is no universal

mandate on when children should begin formal schooling, creating a discrepancy in expectations

on a national, provincial, and even familial level. I believe that these discrepancies are not able to

be nationally mandated, as they are caused by differing cultural, educational, and socioeconomic

factors within each region and community. For example, the international standard for the age of

formal education, held by 66% of countries in 2010, was age six (Barakat & Bengtsson, 2018).

However, this standard has been overlooked and discarded by many nations and even families,

with countries like Indonesia having one of the largest gaps in the de jure and de facto age of

education for their children. In this paper, I will delve into these three facets of formal schooling

in both Indonesia and Norway. In addition to these two countries, I will be discussing the

Romani community in Romania, whose children are currently living in an education desert.

Every culture and community I review in this paper has a drastically different expectation and

view of formal education from one another, each suiting their country’s and community’s own

needs and capabilities.

Indonesia

Statistics

Indonesia has one of the world’s largest formal school initiatives, maintaining 20 and 30

million children in primary and secondary schools (Barakat & Bengtsson, 2018). The official age

of onset for formal education in Indonesia is seven years old, a surprising two year gap from the

age that many children actually begin formal schooling there (Barakat & Bengtsson, 2018).
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FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 3
Although this gap elicits several issues in the way that data on the country’s education system

has been documented, Indonesia has been making strides towards a more advanced and assisted

education system since the early 2000’s. In 2003, Indonesia introduced an early childhood

development clause in its national education system law (Denboba et al., 2015). With this clause,

they have been able to implement the use of the Systems Approach for Better Education Results

(SABER) and the Stepping Up EDC guide. SABER is a diagnostic tool deployed by the World

Bank used to assess early childhood development in Indonesia, and can be broken down into

three main components used to gauge the country’s status in educational standards. The three

components include establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely, and monitoring

and assuring quality. These factors are judged on a four criterion scale; latent, emerging,

established and advanced. Indonesia currently holds an established ranking in establishing an

enabling environment and an emerging ranking in implementation and monitoring quality

(Denboba et al., 2015).

Factors

The largest contributing

factors to the practices

concerning child education

in Indonesia are

educational and

socioeconomic. To aid in

establishing how these factors influence

Indonesia’s parents and children the most, I will be referencing a study conducted by Barakat and
CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC FACTORS IN DETERMINING THE ONSET OF
FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 4
Bengtsson in 2018 on the age of school entry in Indonesia. The main goal of this research was to

study the age pattern of school entry in Indonesia through a meta-analysis of surveys and data.

This was done in order to identify the different early education groups that are vulnerable to a

variety of factors in the school system. The Indonesian school system has been praised and

criticized in recent years because of both cultural and educational factors. As aforementioned,

the country has made significant strides in their efforts to expand and enforce greater standards in

their education system. However, data collected from a survey of 83% of the Indonesian

population has revealed several cultural and developmental reasons for the discrepancy in their

formal education enrollment ages. Most significantly, 18% and 26% of parents reported keeping

their children out of school due to the opinion that they are “too young” to start in the IFLS and

SUSENAS surveys in 2007 and 2012, respectively (Barakat & Bengtsson, 2018).

The study conducted by Barakat and colleagues also found that children who entered at

age six did better on examinations when they were 14 years of age, compared to those who

entered at the official age of seven (Barakat & Bengtsson, 2018). Additionally, children who

enrolled at age seven rather than age six were more likely to have a head of the household with

lower education, no household or dwelling, and no sanitary or electrical facets in the dwelling.

Lastly, this study discovered that children who enter into formal education from disadvantaged

households at their own pace rather than at an early age typically do not derive an educational

benefit in attending in a later year (Barakat & Bengsston, 2018). These findings lead me to

believe that a mixture of educational factors, such as the implementation of the early childhood

development clause, are increasing the age of entry into formal education in Indonesia, while

socioeconomic factors are keeping some children from entering at an earlier stage.

The Romani
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FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 5
Statistics

For this analysis, I will specifically focus on the rural provinces of Italy, known to be the

homes of many Romani communities. These communities are notorious for remaining fairly

detached from modern life and the flow of 21st century society, keeping them behind current

standards in many aspects of life. The school attendance of children from rural Roma

populations in general, let alone the early education attendance, is behind most mainstream

societies (Stark & Berlinschi, 2020). Many Roma children do not attend school at all, and if they

do they are left sorely behind the rest of their peers. This has been cited as the leading cause of

Roma’s cycle of poverty- their children do not attend school regularly, leading them into

isolation from the greater community and pushing into poverty and unemployment (Stark &

Berlinschi, 2020). This trend can be seen in Roma from generation to generation, causing

researchers to wonder why their education trends continue to remain abjectly low.

Factors

The biggest factors mitigating the educational standard in these Roma communities are

cultural and socioeconomic. While there are several known causes to why the Roma populations

continue to maintain such low educational standards, the first and foremost cause is poverty

(Stark & Berlinschi, 2020). Given the low socioeconomic status of most families in this region,

there are usually not enough funds to support the basic needs of a student, including the price of

proper clothing, materials and lunches. In addition to this, families with a low socioeconomic

status will often keep their children out of school in order to help pick up jobs and support their

families. One cultural and educational cause is the linguistic barrier between children from Roma

families and children enrolled in mainstream schools (Stark & Berlinschi, 2020). Many of the

students in formal schooling throughout Italy speak at a much more advanced level, leaving the
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FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 6
Roma children behind in their understanding of the material. Although these factors may seem to

put the children from this community at a disadvantage in the modern world, they are abiding by

the traditions of their communities and cultures. Many Roma children do end up attaining higher

education in their lifetimes, however their roles within their families are held to a higher standard

than their formal education (Stark & Berlinschi, 2020).

Norway

Statistics

Norway is known to be one of the most progressive countries in the world in several

aspects. They have set amazing standards for gender equality in the workforce and in their

education system, as well as many more forward policies concerning health care and government

regulation. In trend with their other ideals, Norway is also a progressive thinker in their standards

for early formal education. Kindergarten is established as the first formal schooling for children

in Norway, and is valued highly among the government and most parents. The official age of

formal education is five, giving their children a leg up in the amount of time they spend in the

classroom before first grade (Haug & Storo, 2013).

Factors

The largest factors contributing to the formal education system in Norway are educational

and cultural. The biggest factor aiding Norway in making such an influential headway in their

early formal education is that the idea of kindergarten is supported by the community as a whole,

mending it into their educational culture. In recent years, the Norwegian Welfare State has even

begun initiating the Kindergarten Reform, in which kindergartens throughout Norway are

mandated to give children “beneficial opportunities for development and activities in close

collaboration and understanding with the children’s parents” (Haug & Storo, 2013). In addition
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FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 7
to this, Norway introduced the Kindergarten Act in 1975, which was updated in 2005. The act

promotes ideals in the kindergarten classroom such as “wonder”, “play”, “care” and

“development”, ensuring that all children who attend are exposed to nurturing and formative

lessons.

Future Discussions

Every community has a different expectation for the education of their children, and it is

not realistic to expect an international agreement on the appropriate age of onset for that

education. In research on the equity of early enrollment, younger children struggled and stayed

far behind their older classmates in reading comprehension and phoneme awareness (Solli,

2014). In contrast, many parents surveyed in the United Kingdom who enroll their children into

formal education at ages as young as four years old report amazing results (Sharp, 2002). These

conflicting standards and findings reveal that there will never be a “correct” age for formal

education cross culturally, as every community has differing projections for their own children’s

education. This is made apparent in the contrast between the children from Indonesia, Norway,

and the Romani populations. While enrollment at the age of seven would be considered two

years late in Norway, it is aiding the Indonesian education systems in bettering their outcomes,

especially for families of low socioeconomic status. Additionally, just as many families from

mainstream communities would discard the idea of keeping a child out of school, it is a part of

the Roma’s culture and tradition to work with one’s family before achieving an education.
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FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 8
References

Barakat, B., Bengtsson, S. (2018). What do we mean by school entry age? Conceptual ambiguity

and its implications: the example of Indonesia. Comparative education, 54(2), 203-224.

Denboba, A., Hasan, A., Wodon, Q. (2015). Early Childhood Education and Development in

Indonesia. World Bank Group.

Sharp, C. (2002). School Starting Age: European Policy and Recent Research.

Stark, O., Berlinschi, R. (2020). Community Influence as an Explanatory Factor Why Roma

Children Get Little Schooling. Public Choice, 189, 93-114.

Haug, K. H., Storo, J. (2015). Kindergarten- A Universal Right for Children in Norway.

International Journal of Childcare and Educational Policy, 7, 1-13.

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FORMAL SCHOOLING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, INDONESIA, AND NORWAY 9
Appendix A

Research and document the various ages that children begin formal schooling in at least 3

countries around the world. Discuss why there is so much variation and whether there is a “best”

age to begin school. Consider cultural and economic factors along with educational and

psychological factors that influence the ages that children begin school.