KUCHING: Sarawak wants to achieve a target where every Sarawakian child must at least receive an early childhood education by the year 2025.
Deputy Minister of Women, Early Childhood and Community Development Datuk Rosey Yunus said according to last year’s statistics, it was recorded that about 98.82 per cent of children had received early childhood education.
“Thus, our ministry wants 100 per cent of children to receive early childhood education before entering Primary 1 by 2025,” she said.
She said this during the Zasa Kindergarten’s 37th convocation ceremony held at Waterfront Hotel here recently.
The state government takes the matter of early childhood education very seriously and wants to make sure that no child is left behind, Rosey pointed out.
“Having said that, the private nurseries and kindergartens as well as the ones set up by the government also play an important role in helping the state to achieve the said target,” she said.
Among the ministry’s initiatives to achieve the said target, she said, was by organising courses for the preschools and kindergartens so that they can improve their quality.
“Quality means that all nurseries and kindergartens are off good standard and quality.
“In addition to that, the ministry wants to come out with a guideline whereby the preschools and kindergartens here can follow and maintain their quality,” she said.
There are a total of 3,062 early childhood institutions (IPAKK) registered throughout Sarawak as of December 31 last year, with 228 of them are nurseries and 2,834 are kindergartens.