Hannah Yeoh
PUTRAJAYA: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is looking at a tax rebate initiative as an incentive to entice parents to join parenting courses.
Its Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh said the ministry is currently in talks with relevant agencies on tax rebate consideration for those who signed up for parenting course.
“At the ministry, we want to focus more on parenting skills. We are looking at how to make parents join parenting courses to ensure Malaysian parents take more responsibilities,” she told a press conference after launching the Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management programme here yesterday.
Yeoh also proposed that the Road Transport Department included parenting aspects in driving school curriculum to enhance knowledge pertaining to children passenger safety practices to create awareness about children being left in car and dying from heatstroke.
On the issue of vaccination, she said although there were many calls now asking to criminalise parents for not vaccinating their children, yet there were still some parents who did not vaccine their children and exposed them to unnecessary risks.
She also urged Malaysian adults to start being sensitive over the safety of children and to report to the authorities whenever they see a child exposed to any risk.
Yeoh also called on the community to change their indifferent culture especially when it involving marginalised and vulnerable people such as children, old folks and people with disabilities to protect them from being exposed to risks.
“There are so many situations where these people cannot speak up for themselves, and that they need the help from the community to “stop, care and ask” and reports to the authorities,” she said. — Bernama