Michael Kong
KUCHING: The Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin) recently announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has failed to provide sufficient assistance to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country, said Michael Kong, a special assistant to Stampin MP and Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
Kong said not only did the Prihatin partially fail SMEs but it also provided no assistance for the early childhood education sector.
“Other than the loan deferments for a period of six months, there is no assistance from our government (both state and federal governments) which would directly benefit the early childhood education sector such as childcare centres, kindergartens and even tuition centres,” he said in a press statement today.
According to Kong, these centres are currently being pressured to give discounts or waive fees for the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
Making it worse, he said there was no indication whether the ongoing MCO period would end on April 14 or be further extended.
“Even if it (MCO) ends on April 14 based on the announcement thus far, most parents would still not take the risk of sending their children back to the childcare centres, kindergartens and tuition centres immediately upon expiry of the MCO.
“Most likely, it will take another few weeks before the parents will start sending their children back to these centres,” he opined.
During this MCO period, he said these education providers would still have to pay their teachers and employees full salaries.
Many operators, he observed, are deeply affected and even considering winding up their operations if the situation persists any longer than it already has.
“We understand that some other learning institutions are resorting to e-learning, but for early childcare and learning which need more personal attention, e-learning is quite impossible,” he pointed out.
Kong cautioned that many individuals would lose their jobs if early childhood education centres or tuition centres started closing down.
As such, he called upon the government to take immediate action to help childcare or learning centres before they started closing down or retrenching.