State needs RM10.89m to fi x, upgrade 121 preschools; RM23m for furniture; RM20m for 95 new ones
(From left) Fatimah and Sharifah Hasidah share a light moment with the preschoolers at Taska Kemas Kampung Bawang.
KUCHING: A total of 121 preschools under the Community Development Department (Kemas) are so dilapidated that Sarawak is bidding for RM10.89 million for repairs and upgrading over the next five years.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the majority of these preschools are wooden structures and in dire need of repair.
Even so, she did not term those facilities as posing any danger yet for children and teachers.
Elaborating on the matter, she said the identified pre-schools were not conducive enough to learning while some had leaky roofs and cracked fl oors.
“We are in a dilemma where we cannot close operation because we need to provide children with access to early childhood education.
In the meantime, the dilapidated conditions should not stop our teachers from giving their best to our children.
We are trying our best to acquire the needed budget to repair them,” she said during a site visit to Taska Kemas Kampung Bawang in Siburan near here yesterday.
Fatimah said the state would also be requesting for more than RM23 million for all the preschools under Kemas to purchase furniture and teaching aids for 2016-2020.
On top of that, Sarawak would also be bidding for at least RM20 million to build 95 new Kemas preschools in the coming five years, she added.
As of yesterday, there were 1,544 preschools and 78 childcare centres under Kemas across the state.
The number of preschools has increased by 115 per cent – more than double the 721 recorded in 2009.
Responding to a question, Fatimah said her ministry would categorise the 121 dilapidated pre-schools as ‘Daif A, Daif B and Daif C’ to prioritise the repair needs.
She said this was a mechanism to make sure that the most dilapidated facilities would be given priority for government funding.
On the proposed 95 new preschools, she said Sarawak did not need big buildings but adequate and standard ones to make sure all children across the state had access to early childhood education.
A standard preschool should come with a floor space of 13,000 sqm (square metres) by 11,600 sqm to accommodate a maximum of 25 children, she explained.
“The standard teacher-children ratio is 1:5 which is one teacher for every five children.”
She also lauded Kemas for its extensive effort in providing early childhood education for children throughout the state.