Fatimah (seated centre) in a group photo with other council members after the meeting yesterday.
KUCHING: Locality is always the biggest problem faced by operators to set up nurseries and kindergartens in the state.
Minister for Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said this is because they have to comply with stringent Land and Survey Department requirements before their application can be approved.
“For safety reasons, the Land and Survey Department is very strict about locality of such institutions and usually to look for new suitable site will take the operators a bit of time.
“My ministry usually tries to help those institutions that have yet to register their operation but there were cases when the applications were unsuccessful because of the locality. This is the main problem that some of the operators are facing,” she said.
She told reporters this when asked if there were any nurseries and kindergartens operating in the state illegally after chairing the Children’s Early Education Council Sarawak (MPAKK) meeting at her office in Masja Complex in Petra Jaya here yesterday.
According to Fatimah, from January 2010 to end of last month there were altogether 138 nurseries registered throughout the state, out of which 97 belonged to institutions, five were nurseries in workplaces, four were community nurseries and 32 were home based.
Based on the statistics provided, she said 66 were in Kuching, 18 in Samarahan, Sibu, 30 in Bintulu (15) and Miri (15), four in Limbang, four in Sarikei (two) and Mukah (two), and one in Sri Aman, with a total of 2,872 children aged four years and below.
Meanwhile, Fatimah said apart from encouraging the setting up of more nurseries the government was also giving greater emphasis on the quality of preschools in the state.
She said up to last month there were altogether 2,730 kindergartens with 4,983 classes and 73,447 students throughout the state.
She explained that 1,105 of the kindergartens were run by the Education Department, 172 by the National Unity and Integration Department, 1,050 by State Community Development Department or Kemas and 403 were run by private institutions authorised by the Education Department.
Meanwhile, she said MPAKK at its meeting yesterday, among others, discussed its two coming main events for this year; namely the second childcare talks and the 10th preschool education convention.
She said the first event will be held here from May 8 to 10 while the convention will be held sometime in September in Miri and is expected to be graced by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem.