Fatimah receives a memento from Petrosains programme director Kamaruddin Kassim. Looking on is the ministry’s Early Childhood Development division head Salina Bujang.
KUCHING (April 7): The Ministry of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development has initiated a collaboration with Petrosains to create a more interactive education experience through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes following the declining enrolment of students in the science stream.
Its minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah says the initiative was made in line with the state government’s effort to increase the number of students taking up science stream and viewed the percentage of students’ enrolment in the science stream as below the ministry’s expectation.
“For a child to be interested in a particular subject, he or she would need to be exposed at an early age.
“Therefore, the programme by Petrosains will focus on educating children under the age of seven, with teachers’ involvements,” she said during Petrosains’ courtesy visit to her office at Baitulmakmur II yesterday.
“Children at that early age are able to absorb and learn fast, and therefore, the learning experience has to be fun and relevant to this age group,” she added.
Fatimah said the collaboration would be a good start in cultivating children’s interest towards STEM, and noted that as a former educator, she was keen to provide a platform to help children develop holistically.
Fatimah expressed her hope that Petrosains would expand its programme into reaching out to the children in the rural areas as well as children with special needs.
“It would be great to provide children living in the rural areas – the same opportunity and experience of those living in the cities. But we must also not forget the children with special needs as some of them have abilities that should be explored and developed,” she pointed out.