Jakarta, Aug. 8 -- The Indonesian Pediatrician Society (IDAI) commends the government's decision to expand the Free Health Checkup (CKG) program to schools and hopes it will also be extended to all children, including school dropouts.

General Secretary of IDAI Hikari Ambara Sjakti stated here on Friday that the program is a strategic measure to detect health issues, gauge children's growth progress, prevent diseases, and promote a healthy lifestyle through education.

"Overall, data collected from the checkups can serve as a reference for evidence-based health interventions and form the foundation for the national health policy," Sjakti stated.

Hence, he emphasized that the government should formulate ways to extend this initiative to c...