KUCHING, May 14: Childcare centres, pre-schools and kindergartens will be allowed to operate from May 17 onwards by conforming to strict standard operating procedures (SOP) before, during and after children attended classes.
Minister of Welfare, Community Well-Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah also reminded that operators of early childhood education institutions (IPAKK) must informed the Ministry’s Early Childhood Development Division prior to their operations via http://bit.ly/maklumatipakk.
“This decision has been made after referring to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) following Federal government’s announcement on Movement Control Order (MCO) that came into effect on May 12 until June 6, in which childcare centres, pre-schools and kindergartens are allowed to operate to enable parents or guardians to be at work,” she said in a statement today.
As of May 11, Fatimah disclosed that the Ministry has received 102 applications from private kindergartens to operate which involved 286 children of frontliners and 1,022 children of parents working under essential services.
“Operation approval has also been given to 96 IPAKK Sedidik with 251 frontliners’ children and 701 essential services workers’ children; 1,087 IPAKK Kemas with 1,474 frontliners’ children and 2,228 essential services workers’ children; as well as 176 IPAKK Perpaduan with 155 frontliners’ children and 1,141 essential services workers’ children,” she explained.
Presently, she added that there were 234 pre-schools and 2,795 kindergartens registered in Sarawak.
In this difficult and critical period due to the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, Fatimah believes that this decision will provide great relief to working parents and to ensure their children are not left behind in lessons. — DayakDaily
