International Journal of Research & Review (www.ijrrjournal.com) 244 Vol.6; Issue: 4; April 2019 International Journal of Research and Review www.ijrrjournal.com E-ISSN: 2349-9788; P-ISSN: 2454-2237 Original Research Article Teacher Perception on the Importance of Keeping the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Children in Early Childhood Education Desni Yuniarni Tanjungpura University, Profesor Dokter H. HadariNawawi Street, Pontianak, West Kalimantan 78115 ABSTRACT Children with good mental health and well being are children who grow up and develop optimally and are physically and mentally fulfilled. They can also adapt well with other people and actively learn in their schools. However, in contrary, children with poor mental health tend to be passive and less likely to interact with other people in school. Therefore, the health mental and wellbeing is very important for the development of the children. In this case, the teachers have such important roles to acknowledge the mental health and well being of their pupils. The objective of this study is to find out the perception of the teachers about the mental health and wellbeing of the students in their schools. This is a qualitative study, in a form of case study. The data was obtained through interviews and focus group discussion that were conducted to 7 kindergarten teachers from 4 different classes. The study finding shows that most teachers in the kindergarten agree the importance of keeping the mental health of the children, because the children with mental health will show excitement, cheerful, eager to do activities in the school, can get through obstacles in the school, and are confident. All teachers agree to keep the wellbeing of the children, because the wellbeing children are those who show the joy in interacting with people, relax, is not seemed tense, show the desire to learn new experiences, is open, and be able to express their feelings proportionally. All teachers also be able to demonstrate how to keep the mental health and wellbeing of the children in school, which are by always paying attention to the needs of each child, take a special approach on children who are in needs, and engage children in activities that require various fun activities that make them enthusiast to actively participate in various activities in their class. Keywords: mental health, well being, teacher perception, early childhood education INTRODUCTION Attention on the children health mental can be done in the school. [1] This means, the attempt to improve the mental health of the children can also be done by teachers. They are the first people who can quickly find out if there is problem in their mental health and wellbeing by observing their activity and the learning process in the school. This perspective is described as “competence enhancement”, [2] in which the teachers should have competences other than teaching to improve the mental health of children in the school. In line with that argument, it called as “fostering individual and social resources”, [3] in which the mental health attention by the teachers occurs as an effort to keep the mental health of the children in their social environment and the teachers are the main social resources of the children in the school in improving their mental health. In line with this, a study result about Australian primary school teachers‟ knowledge and confidence for mental health promotion mentioned that the teachers