KUCHING: Many early childhood institutions (IPAKKs) in the state are expected to shut down their operations next year due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said during the implementation of the movement control order (MCO), IPAKKs were instructed to close.
“This then affected the frontliners or parents who lose the support system in taking care of their children while they are at work and they had to resort to private nannies who are unregistered and do not have the appropriate standard operating procedure (SOP) as the IPAKKs.
“That is why we have requested Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) for consideration in view of our situation which is different than Malaya and subsequently, the IPAKKs were allowed to reopen under enhanced SOP.
“Despite that, due to Covid-19 pandemic, many parents have started to work at home and thus, the attendance of children to the IPAKKs has declined.
“This then affects the private operators in terms of source of income because parents refused to pay the fees since their children are absent from schooling session,” she told reporters at a press conference held at Baitul Makmur building in Petrajaya here today.
When asked on the statistics on closure of IPAKKs, Fatimah revealed that about six private kindergartens around Kuching are set to shut down.
“The institutions are in the midst of preparing their paper works now to be submitted to the relevant authorities but we will only know the exact figure by January next year,” she said.
However, she stressed that the government IPAKKs would not be affected.
She also noted that even if the IPAKKs shifted to online learning, the children still needed to be guided by their parents or guardians. Hence, she expressed worry over the children’s early education in obtaining skills such as basic literacy and social.
“Thus, the Primary 1 teachers next year need to work extra hard and be prepared to accept these children’s cohort whose schooling session on early education were interrupted due the pandemic,” she added.
She further said the ministry had come up with a manual on standard of quality for early education which will be distributed to the IPAKK teachers by January next year.
As of Nov 30, a total of 36,622 pupils or 97.17 percent of Primary One students of government schools have attended kindergartens and childcare centres. Meanwhile, private schools recorded 568 or 99.30 percent of the total 572 students who had attended kindergartens and childcare centres.
“This makes the total enrolment data for first year students who have attended kindergartens/childcare centres/preschools at 37,190 or 97.20 percent out of 38,262 students,” she said.
As of Nov 30, there are 3,063 IPAKKs in the state with 81,244 students, 6,503 teachers and 4,094 teaching assistants.
