Page 1 of 16 Does Early Education and Cognitive Skills Really Matters? Hudzaifah Abdullah (1306408113) 1 Goldy Fariz Dharmawan (1306376692) 2 Introduction Common understanding has put education on its best level since the earliest history, as an essential part of human life. Discussing about education is not only criticizing how does it being conducted, but also what kind of education is needed, where should it being provided, and when is the best time to start giving education. By all means, education is indeed an abstract term that should be elicited or defined carefully so people have similar understanding on the concept of education. One of the researcher address that education should be started as early as possible, to help the individual to learn well in the future (1). The arguments are also strengthened by the continuous learning principles which explain that the process of education will be sustained through the lifetime. Thus, the treatment of giving earlier education will increase the acceleration of learning in the earlier time (1). One of the Nobel laureate who was awarded for his contribution in economics, James Heckman, asserted that early education is a form of investment for the future of the society (2). This concept is also supported by his other arguments which said that the best investment is human capital investment. This means that the educational investment to increase the creative-power of human is necessary to increase aggregate economic productivity of the country. Heckman explained in his works about the Heckman Equation. It is an upstream concept that explains how we can get gain in the future by acting now. Heckman equation is simply explained in this conceptual equation: Gain = Invest + Develop + Sustain 1 abdullahhudzaifah@gmail.com 2 goldyfarizdharmawan@gmail.com