Posted on June 28, 2011, Tuesday
KUCHING: The percentage of preschoolers in Sarawak is higher than the national figure, even though the state is the size of Peninsular Malaysia.
Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datin Fatimah Abdullah yesterday said that in 2010, the number of children in government and private preschools stood at 94.5 per cent compared to the national figure of 72.42 per cent of the population.
“For 2011, the percentage has increased to 95.23 per cent compared to the national target of 80 per cent,” she said in her winding up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) .
Due to the rise in intake, Fatimah said, the allocation for preschool education also increased from RM51.3 million last year to RM69.05 million as of this month.
The government, she said, would not compromise on the quality of preschool education including aspects such as security, cleanliness, health, student to teacher ratio according to age group, the quality of childcare and the level of education in accordance to the fixed standard.
She added that the government would implement an integrated training programme to uplift the standard of professionalism among kindergarten and nursery teachers.
“Since 2010, 508 out of 1,545 teachers in private kindergartens which are registered in Sarawak have been trained by the Ministry of Education,” she said.
The government had also given incentives in the form of a launching grant amounting to RM10,000 for every new registered kindergarten.
Fatimah said the government also gave e-Yuran assistance amounting to RM150 monthly to children who qualified based on e-Kasih data.
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