In addition to general or formal education, it is also important to provide informal education to children so that their personality is perfectly formed both in terms of norms, ethics and behavior of children’s lives in the social environment when they grow up.
In informal education, which is more about building the character of children from an early age, it is absolutely the role of parents directly in teaching things related to norms, ethics and in carrying out social life.
In particular, education This non-formal education can be interpreted as one way to educate or provide education to children, whether carried out by parents or families directly or through their environment independently.
In particular, the government even regulates informal education in Law Number 20 of 2003 concerning the national education system or the National Education System which is regulated in Article 27.
The technical provision of non-formal education to children is carried out when the child has begun to understand and begin to understand study as a social creature by building the nature, character and behavior of a child when he is outside his family environment.
Informal education also has a very broad definition, especially in terms of the type of education the child will receive, ranging from character education, ethics, religion, manners, morals to social education.
The main function of this education is to build the character as well as the personality of a child until he reaches adulthood. In addition, there are other functions of this education such as:
Provide motivation to children to be more diligent and active while studying, participate in improving the quality of learning outcomes, play a role in building a person’s mental and physical growth optimally.
In addition, it becomes one of the motivations for children to recognize and develop their talents and potentials and encourage children to have independence and be able to solve the problems they face independently.
Characteristics of Informal Education
To recognize the characteristics of this education can be seen directly through the characters and methods of informal education itself.
In addition, this education also has a much different nature from general education or direct education in schools. While other characteristics are as described in the following explanation:
No Requirements
Non-formal education does not require special requirements when undergoing it, because everything is done by families and parents directly on the attitudes and behavior of children in their daily lives. This is different from formal education which has and requires certain requirements such as age and other requirements.
Don’t Have to Take the Exam
This education does not require a child to take an exam as part of the evaluation of the informal education that he has learned so far, because the output of informal education is more about character building in children.
Does not require a curriculum or education level
Because informal education focuses more on building character and personality in a child, this education does not require a specific curriculum or further education levels in the process, because informal education is even carried out from infancy to adulthood.
Parents and Families Act as Teachers
This education fully prioritizes the role of parents and families in the child’s life environment to act as the teacher directly by providing lessons or understanding about things that are more personal and human as social beings.