THE Permata Negara programme curriculum can be extended to the private sector in an effort to help in the development of children under age four.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said the effectivemess of the progamme was proven when several agencies in the government adopted the curriculum to teach children.
“The Community Development Department (Kemas) and National Unity and Integration Department (JPNIN) had used the same programme, which was managed by Permata and the agencies.
“Currently, Kemas has 448 kindergarten programmes with Permata, with 9,075 children and 1,816 teachers.
“There are 41 programmes at JPNIN involving 880 children and 246 teachers,” he said when answering a supplementary question in the Dewan Negara here yesterday, from Senator Datuk Boon Som Inong who wanted to know if the government was planning to expand Permata at parliamentary level and especially, rural areas.
Shahidan said the Terengganu Foundation had 64 kindergartens using the curriculum of the programme with 3,670 children and 628 teachers.
“The community kindergartens at the work place have 101 programmes involving 2,525 children and 505 teachers,” he said, adding that the government also aspired to expand the programme to all parliamentary constituencies.
Meanwhile, Shahidan said Permata received RM51,248,399 million to manage and operate eight national Permata children centres, including paying the emoluments of their teaching manpower.
The fund was also used to implement the Permata Pintar, Permata Insan, Permata Seni, Perkasa Remaja and Permata Kurnia programmes, totalling RM4,037,800.
“It was also for the construction of a new national Permata Negara Centre in Jeram, Subang, Gopeng, Kuala Krai and Tanah Merah,” said Shahidan.
Currently, he said, 18,467 children sat for the Permata Negara programme at 742 kindergartens in 128 districts nationwide involving 3,663 teachers. — Bernama