(From right) Sharifah Hasidah, Rosey and Fatimah looking on as children attend their lesson at SeDidik Tadika at Samariang today.
KUCHING (Feb 6): The Sarawak Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development is targeting for all children in the state to have access to early childhood education before entering primary school, said its minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
Fatimah said based on the latest survey conducted, about 98.86 per cent of the pupils enrolling into Primary One in Sarawak have attended early childhood education.
“We want every child in Sarawak to have access to early childhood education. Aside from having access, we also want our children to be provided with quality education with guidelines set by the ministry,” she said during a press conference after inspecting SeDidik childcare centre (Taska) and kindergarten (Tadika) at Samariang today.
SeDidik is an early childhood education and care institution under the state’s Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development that provides affordable and quality education to young children.
Adding on, Fatimah said her ministry aspires to provide a safe and conducive environment for working parents to send children for early childhood education.
“Such systematic support of quality early childhood education and properly trained teachers is crucial for working parents, especially mothers, because the ministry want to retain women in the workforce.
“A lot of our women are highly educated and they have the skills to contribute to the government agency, community and state.”
In view of this, she urged employers to set up a childcare centre at workplace for their employees.
“Having a childcare centre at workplace will offer convenience to working parents and thus, corporate bodies are very much welcomed to establishment such centres for their staff. Property developers should also incorporate the setting up of Taska and Tadika centres in their design planning.”
As of Dec 31 2022, there were 3,061 early childhood education institutions across Sarawak, with Taska constituted to 227 institutions and the remaining are Tadika.
Meanwhile, Fatimah commended SeDidik’s Taska and Tadika for adopting an ‘open policy’ that promotes inclusivity within their classes, whereby children with special needs are accepted to attend lessons together with their abled body counterparts.
Fatimah said SeDidik has also been tasked with monitoring the demand for quality early childhood education in the state, as well as setting up such institutions in strategic locations near to high population density places.
“If there is a demand for Taska or Tadika institutions in rural areas, we will ask SeDidik to evaluate the practicality of setting up such centres in those areas.”
Among those present were deputy minister Datuk Rosey Yunus and Samariang assemblywoman Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali.