SW (an initial name for a 4 year boy in Malang) has been getting used to smoke and say offensive and vulgar words for years. As he puffs a hole of smoke into air, adults in his neighborhood, ironically, give applause and cheer to him.

AR (an initial name for a 2.5 year old boy in Sulawesi) has been smoking for 18 months. He will cry like a wolf if he is prevented from cigar. If he does so, his parents then fulfill his demand just to make him silent.

Those two real pictures prove that social environment and parents have great influence on developing children’s traits.

In short, the early childhood education (for children between 0 to 6 years old) is essential, indeed, because at this range of life they learn fast, absorbing any kinds of information and memorizing experience from their surroundings.

Given the importance of the early childhood education, ITM arranged Training for Developing Quality of Non-formal Early Childhood Teachers for the area of Jakarta and Thousands Islands on 22 to 23 June 2010. It was aimed to improve early childhood teachers’ competency so that they could become more creative and innovative in educating early childhood children.

The courses were about how to create learning media for the early childhood, how to monitor children progress (to make sure that there is no early deviation), and how to evaluate the development. The lectures were experts in the field: Yufi Natakusumah, Yuliani Nuraini Sujioino, and Rita Rosmala.

At PAUD, the children earn basic values, where their intelligence and motivation are seeded through games exercising their sensory and motoric nerve. They are encouraged to interact with and explore social surroundings.

Representing the Association of Early Childhood Teachers (Himpaudi), Rita Rosmini said that there were lots of such activities outside the government’s radar. “In this sense, the role of private institutions is important,” she said as conveying gratitude for ITM support to PAUD (Early Childhood Education).

According to ITM’s Corporate Communication Manager Melina Karamoy, such activities will go on and be adjusted to the field requirements. “What is sure is it will be beneficial for you,” said her. With the knowledge obtained, it is expected that the educators of PAUD could find it easier to do the educational process meant for making children smarter and noble.

This activity is one of Volunteer Action activity as an implementation of the Company’s corporate social responsibility program called ITM for Education. It is the Company’s mainstay program in the context of national scope. By conducting such programs, it is expected that, besides giving contribution to the Nation, the Company could give positive image to its all shareholders.