REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KOBA -- Culture and Education Minister Anies Baswedan has urged schools to set up a team to prevent violence against children.

"This team will conduct an early detection of any irregularities," Baswedan stated here on Tuesday.

This is part of the efforts to respond to the growing incidence of violence against children.

"Sexual deviance must be quickly detected to address and prevent sexual abuse among children," the minister affirmed.

The minister remarked that crimes against children were brutal in nature.

"Indeed, early childhood education is very important as it can instill good values and develop a child's personality," the minister noted.

Baswedan emphasized that family education played an important role in molding a child's character.

"The family environment plays a crucial role in developing a child's character. In this case, mothers play an important role in developing good character traits in their children," the minister pointed out.

Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise had earlier stated that the increase in violence against children in Indonesia will pose a serious challenge to the existence of this nation in competing with other countries.

"The quality of Indonesian human resources is inseparable from the role of children, who constitute 34 percent of the total population," she remarked here on Thursday.

Yembise noted that the role of some 87 million children in Indonesia was entirely dependent on their protection and the fulfillment of their rights from the cradle to 18 years of age.

She reiterated that the increase in the number of child abuse cases still poses a serious problem for the optimal development of children in the country.

A survey conducted in 2013 by the women's empowerment and child protection minister among a group of individuals aged 18 to 24 years indicated that one out of every two boys and one out of every six girls in Indonesia had experienced sexual, physical, and/or emotional violence before reaching 18 years of age.

A similar survey conducted on another group of 13- to 17-year-olds indicated that no less than 30 percent of boys and girls were reported to have experienced a similar form of violence in the last 12 years.

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