Fatimah (front, fourth right) and Dr Chiam on her right in a photo-call with guests and participants of the ECCE Council dialogue.
KUCHING: Every child in the state has the right to access to early childhood education and guidance.
According to Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, the government is very concerned about the matter in order to produce quality human capital and society.
“This is the very essence of the state government’s Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education and Guidance 2016-2020, and also in line with the rights of children to secure protection, participation and development as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989.
“In Sarawak, we are also concerned with early childhood education access and as such, we encourage the establishment of ‘taska’ at home, community and at work so that more children get quality care,” she said.
Fatimah said this when officiating at the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Council’s dialogue on accessibility and quality preschools and Violent-Free Early Childhood Seminar at Penview Hotel here.
She said the state government was concerned about the early childhood education equity and has spent RM5.8 million to build 11 preschools identified as dilapidated under the Community Development Department (Kemas) even though it should be under the federal government.
Fatimah disclosed that her ministry also emphasised on human resource knowledge and skills as well as improving the infrastructures at early childhood education institution’s to provide quality services for children.
On the issue of violence, she said that it is everyone’s problem.
“Children are often the ‘forgotten victims’ of family violence and may display similar psychological trauma as children who have been physically abused,” said Fatimah.
“Raising awareness on the impact violence has on children is the key to ensure their healthy development especially in the first five years. For this reason, I would like to congratulate the ECCE council in adding value to this dialogue by conducting a seminar on Violence-free Early Childhood.
“Violence-free early childhood is important because of the increase in violence among our children. As the first five years of a child’s life is the foundation of development, a child needs to learn from the early years to say ‘no’ to violence by learning how to work cooperatively, building skills to negotiate and solve problems in situations of conflict such as when two children fight over a toy,” she added.
Fatimah revealed that statistics from the state Welfare Department showed there were 955 child abuse cases from 2014 until February 2018.
“This dialogue therefore serves to provide opportunities for private in-service preschool teachers to raise questions regarding the requirement of a Diploma in Early Childhood Education (ECE) as the minimum qualification,” she said.
The President of ECCE Council Malaysia Datuk Dr Chiam Heng Keng noted that the Ministry of Education required all pre-school teachers to at least have diploma in ECE.
“The council is aware of the concern of in-service teachers and it will be discussed by their Panel of Quality Preschool,” she disclosed.
Dr Chiam also said that Sarawak could achieve the target of 98 per cent accessibility in early childhood education (ECE).
“In 2016, the enrolment for the five years old plus (5+) was 93.45 per cent and for the four year old plus (4+) it was 78.52 per cent. In 2017, the enrolment rose to 95.29 per cent for 5+ and 78.80 for the 4+,”she revealed.
She lamented that other states were not doing well and suggested that they should come to Sarawak to learn the strategies.
Welfare Department Children’s Division director Arfan Sulaiman was among those present at the event.