‘No compulsion yet for taska children to undergo vaccination’

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Datuk Fatimah Abdullah

Datuk Fatimah Abdullah

KUCHING: The state government is yet to consider making vaccinations and immunisations one of the conditions for children below the age of five years to be admitted to pre-schools (Taska).

However, the state government has implemented a strategic plan called the State Early Childhood Education (2016-2020) programme, said Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah yesterday.

“As such, by 2020 all pupils under the age of four years will receive guided care, be it at home or in registered early childhood institutions. At the moment, the state has yet to impose any conditions related to immunisation prior to children’s enrolment,” she said.

But if the conditions are to be enforced, she feared that rural children would be left out as rural areas lack immunisation facilities.

“As such, in terms of early childhood education, the immunisation issue in Sarawak differs from Peninsula,” she said yesterday when responding to a recent statement by Deputy Minister for Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Wan Azizah Mohd Dun.

In a recent publication, Wan Azizah said children who were yet to receive their vaccination and immunisation injection will not be accepted into pre-schools managed by the Welfare Department (JKM).

She said this was one of the measures taken by the ministry to protect pupils from dangerous infections.

Wan Azizah lamented that there were parents who refused to allow their children to be vaccinated despite the re-occurrence the Diphtheria epidemic and measles, which had caused child death in the country, five of which were related to Diphtheria.

As such, parents who refuse to vaccinate their children will be penalised under the Child Act 2011 (Amendment) Bill 2015, which will be gazetted soon, she said.

According to Section 31 of the Act, those who cause harm to children could be fined not more than RM20,000 or face imprisonment not exceeding ten years or both, if convicted.