KUCHING: Early childhood care and education (ECCE) teachers, practitioners and providers are just as important as other teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary learning institutions.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said that ECCE is the building block for an individual’s future success, be it academically or socially.
“The state government has been putting in investments such as focus, grants, budget and support system in place to provide quality ECCE.
“They (state government) do this because they recognise that it is in pre-schools that the children, with the help of the teachers, learn and further develop their vocabularies and language skills, counting and numeracy skills, interaction and social skills outside their family circles.
“Research has shown long-term effects of pre-schools in children later in their formal schooling and working lives.
“Thus, we want everybody (ECCE teachers and practitioners) to think that they are as important as other teachers and this is the stand which is embarked by the state government,” she said.
She said this when addressing 256 Sidma College Sarawak graduates who received their Diploma in Early Childhood Studies at its sixth convocation ceremony held at the Kompleks Islam Sarawak hall, yesterday.
Fatimah also urged graduates to not stop learning at diploma-level but embark on a lifelong learning.
She mentioned that her ministry is currently pushing for all teachers in nursery or kindergarten to at least have a diploma.
“At present, in terms of qualification, 3,676 out of 5,823 kindergarten teachers (63 percent) do not have a diploma.
“Because of that, we have to work very hard and we have directed Sedidik ― government-owned company which provides ECCE ― to have all its teachers acquire at least a diploma in ECCE by 2021.
“We also hope other ECCE institutions such as Community Development Department (Kemas) and Department of National Unity and Integration (Perpaduan) will make an effort in ensuring their teachers obtain at least a diploma in ECCE,” she said.
She added that National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) assistance is difficult nowadays so the ministry is currently discussing with Yayasan Sarawak to obtain loans for the teachers to pursue diploma in ECCE.
As of November last year, there are 258 registered nurseries in the state with 4,239 classes and 906 children.
Meanwhile, for registered kindergartens, there are 2,904 institutions with 5,175 classes and 81,104 children.
