KUCHING: All taska (childcare centres) and tadika (kindergartens) statewide will be allowed to operate effective May 17.
However, operators must make sure that there is strict SOP compliance during and after operations.
Following the announcement by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on May 10 that childcare centres and kindergartens are allowed to operate during the movement control order (MCO) from May 12 to June 6, the Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Ministry has referred the matter to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), and as such a decision has been made to allow all childcare centres and kindergartens to operate.
Its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said in “this difficult period of facing the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, the decision to allow all childcare centres and kindergartens will give a sigh of relief to parents who need to work at the same time to ensure that their children do not drop out of attending lessons”.
“As of May 11, the ministry has received 102 applications from private kindergartens to operate, involving 286 children whose parents are listed as frontliners and 1,022 children whose parents serve in the essential service sectors.
“The permission to operate were also given to 96 IPAKK Sedidik with 251 frontliners’ children and 701 essential service workers’ children; 1,087 IPAKK Kemas with 1,474 frontliners’ children and 2,228 essential services workers’ children, including 176 IPAKK Perpaduan with 155 frontliners’ children and 1,141 essential services workers’ children,” she said.
She said for the purpose of record and monitoring, all IPAKK operators must inform the ministry through the Early Childhood Development regarding their operations through the link provided at http://bit.ly/maklumatipakk.
As of April 30, there are 234 registered childcare centres involving 3,741 children, and 2,795 registered kindergartens involving 69,249 children in Sarawak.
