By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Sept 25: Sarawak is developing an Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Framework aimed at setting a clearer State-level direction for the sector, from access and quality to inclusion, child development and the professionalisation of educators.
Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said the framework was intended to provide a comprehensive guide for strengthening coordination and establishing a clearer understanding of what quality ECCE should look like in the Sarawak context.
“More importantly, this framework will help us determine what quality ECCE should look like in the Sarawak context,” she said in her text speech at the opening ceremony of the Sarawak Preschool International Convention 2026 (SPIC 2026) at a hotel here today.
The event was officiated by Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
She said the framework would bring together key elements of early childhood care and education, including access, quality, inclusivity, child development and educator professionalism.
It would also cover family involvement, safe and conducive learning environments, early detection and intervention, good governance, and children’s transition into formal education.
Fatimah said the broad scope reflected the need to view early childhood development as more than an education issue, with children’s wellbeing closely connected to health, nutrition, family wellbeing and protection.
“This requires a cross-sectoral approach,” she said, stressing that cooperation among the government, academia, ECCE practitioners, industry, communities and families must continue to be strengthened.
The framework comes as Sarawak’s ECCE sector reaches a substantial scale, with 2,949 institutions recorded as of Aug 31 this year.
Of these, 2,719 are kindergartens (Tadika) and 230 are childcare centres (Taska), collectively serving 72,136 children with the support of 5,796 teachers and educators.
The figures underscore the scale of the policy challenge facing Sarawak in ensuring that growth in access is matched by consistent standards in the quality of care, learning environments, early intervention and educator capacity.
Rather than focusing solely on the number of institutions and children served, the proposed framework places greater emphasis on establishing a common policy direction across the different dimensions of ECCE.
This includes strengthening the role of families, identifying developmental concerns at an early stage and ensuring appropriate intervention, while preparing children for a smoother transition into formal schooling.
Fatimah said the involvement of multiple sectors would therefore be critical to ensuring children’s needs were addressed comprehensively, rather than through separate education, health or welfare interventions. — DayakDaily
