KUCHING, July 10: Locations of private preschools and kindergartens in Sarawak must be approved by Sarawak Land and Survey Department prior to operation, said Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
In a press statement, the Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development said that 16 out of 2,865 preschools and two out of 236 kindergartens had failed to complete their applications to the Land and Survey Department as of June 28, 2020.
Among the 18 rejected applications, nine preschools and kindergartens were located at busy road junctions and dead ends, while another nine had missing information including the consent of their respective neighbourhood to operate.
Fatimah and director of Land and Survey Sarawak together with representatives from other state agencies met on June 29 to discuss related issues on incomplete registrations and lengthy application periods.
“After the meeting, we’ve come up with a few resolutions to overcome the issues.
“One of them being that Sarawak Land and Survey Department will now take only 35 days (inclusive of weekends) to process the application for use of the premise sites for preschools and kindergartens.
“Previously, the applications were processed within 35 working days,” said Fatimah, which translates to seven weeks.
She added that the approval period for the applications would be adjusted to five years and the operators were required to renew the application each year.
She also pointed out Land and Survey Department must provide reasons to failed applications so the applicants would know why they were not approved.
Meanwhile, Fatimah stressed that no consultants or runners would be permitted to manage any applications and there would be no more temporary registrations allowed.
Lastly, she noted the workshop conducted to refine the existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for preschools and kindergartens’ operations, and a consolidated form to ease applications involving different agencies such as Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba), Land and Survey Department and other local authorities. —DayakDaily
