KUCHING: The holistic education of girls should be pursued relentlessly because they play a significant role in nation building.
INTERNATIONAL GIRLS BRIGADE: Ruth (centre) presents a souvenir to Fatimah as Tnay looks on.
Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datin Fatimah Abdullah said there was a need to look beyond the mere provision of basic formal education.
“We also need to enhance educational opportunities which will help develop and challenge the socio-cultural, emotional and spiritual needs and aspirations of young children,” she said when opening the International Conference of Girls’ Brigade (ICGB) here on Saturday.
Fatimah added that young girls must be taught to appreciate and respect universal values that promote intercultural and inter-religious understandings.
She said she was proud that the number of young girls in the country having formal education over the years had increased tremendously.
“Recently, it was even reported that women undergraduates outnumbered the men,” she pointed out.
Fatimah added that globalisation and rapid advances in information and communications technologies had in no small way helped to produce more educated women.
“With this kind of educational development we are exposed to, and coupled with our natural motherly instincts, I believe young girls today, who will be our future women leaders, are capable of playing more strategic roles in managing change.
“These qualities, which are inherent in almost all our girls, must be looked at as assets which must be further developed and nurtured.
“When and where possible, we must also be involved actively in initiating and institutionalising change which are value-laden and humanistically enriching,” she added.
The ICGB, the first ever held in Malaysia, was attended by 250 participants from 26 countries.
Also present were the president of International Girls Brigade (Zambia) Ruth Chikasa and president of Girls Brigade Malaysia Tnay Yong Hua.