Mind the child and grow the country

Photograph: Ong Ee Lynn

As the country develops, the need for systematic and efficient childcare grows. Being the culturally pluralistic society that Malaysia is, this issue gets rather complicated. Be that as it may, the cost of getting it wrong is as high as are the benefits of getting it right.

By Chan Huan Chiang

Parents with young children tend to also be at the beginning of their career. And keeping both family and work life going is a tough balancing act. Nursery schools and kindergartens are therefore indispensably useful places where the kids can be left in good hands for a few hours.

The thing is, kindergartens and nursery schools do far more than just mind children. Taking care of the very young has evolved into a complex and multifaceted task. It was not long ago that children were supposed to be seen and not heard. In recent times, their development has gained a respected position in public life. Obviously, how children are brought up impacts on the economy and on society’s wellbeing in general.

The rights of a child
Access to early care and education has become a basic right of the child. In November 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This protects persons under 18 from discrimination, guarantees their rights to survival and development, safeguards their interests, provides freedom for them to participate in all matters affecting their lives and ensures them the liberty to express their opinions.[1]

Malaysia is a signatory to the CRC, and the First Action Plan for Children 1990-2001 was formulated with the National Population and Family Development Board acting as secretariat. The Child Act (Act 611) was passed in 2001, taking over from the 1947 Juvenile Court’s Act (Act 90), the 1973 Women and Girls Protection Act (Act 106) and the 1991 Child Protection Act (Act 468).[2] Work had also begun to review the first plan in anticipation of the Second National Action Plan for Children 2001-2020. However, the government then set up the National Committee on the Development and Expansion of Children’s Programme to look into learning environment, education and literacy, problem and disadvantaged children, parental education and the family.

Children’s development
Children’s emotional, physical and intellectual growth is shaped in interactions with others and their surroundings. Learning during the formative years has been shown to have effects that last a lifetime. Countless studies show significant differences between children who received early childhood education and those who did not. The positive effects include better cognitive development, higher academic achievements, greater future employment aspirations, higher income earnings and even more home ownership.

Evaluations also show that the ratio of caregivers to the number of children is also important.[3] One study followed 82 children from infancy and found that children put in childcare with six children to one adult grew up to become less compliant with their parents at 18 months, got on less well with peers when they were in nursery school (as three to four-year-olds) and in kindergarten (at ages six to seven). Teachers found them easily distracted, less task-oriented and less considerate of others. Children in childcare where there were three or fewer children to one adult interacted better with their peers by participating in activities, talking and playing with others. These children were less likely to be found crying or spending time reclusively on their own. Social, intellectual and language skills were found to be useful to children when they attended school.[4] Small differences in the experiences of children during their growing years can and do produce significant differences in their lifetime outcomes and therefore it seems worthwhile to be meticulous with childcare at an early stage.

Much public attention
In Malaysia, early childhood care and education follows the International Standards Classification of Education or ISCED and divides infants (less than four years old) from preschool (four to six years old).[5] The wellbeing of infants is overseen by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD). Children at kindergarten age, on the other hand, come under the purview of the Ministry of Education. Policy developments thus bifurcate between childcare involving infants and preschool education. Meanwhile a host of other public agencies also share in early childhood care and education. They include the Ministry of Social Welfare, the Department of National Unity in the Prime Minister’s Department, the Ministry of Rural Development and religious affairs departments from various states. In 2007, the Setiap Anak Permata Negara (Permata Negara) or Every Child a National Jewel pilot project was launched. Since then, Permata Negara has received regular public funding that has led to the number of its early education centres in the country growing rapidly to some 600 today.[6]

Care of children below four years old
Childcare services in Malaysia are likely to have existed for a long time. According to Chiam (2008)[7], nurses and primary school teachers who graduated from the Malayan Teachers Training College at Brinsford Lodge set up nurseries that catered to professional parents in urban areas. These probably received their training in England.

Childcare services expanded quickly in the country. In 1982, a joint Ministry of Social Welfare-United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) study[8] found that childcare facilities were not regulated and lacked both pre-established health and safety standards. Caregivers had little or no education, and only one per cent had university degrees and these were in fields unrelated to early childcare.[9] Consequently, the Childcare Centre Act (Act 308) was passed in 1984, making it mandatory for institutionalised childcare centres (fee-charging facilities caring for 10 or more children under the age of four) to be registered with the Ministry of Social Welfare and to comply with children’s nutritional, health and safety requirements as well as staff qualifications.

While private childcare was common in urban areas, care of infants under four years old in rural areas was typically provided by childcare centres (Taman Asuhan Kanak-Kanak or Taska) run by KEMAS, the Ministry of Rural Development. Many government offices also had childcare facilities. Civil servants earning less than RM2,000 who sent their children there receive a RM180 subsidy.

The MWFCD began to set up Community Childcare Centres (CCCC) which gave subsidies to parents earning less than RM2,000 in urban areas and RM1,200 in rural areas.[10] Plans were made to rapidly expand CCCCs throughout the country. Following the mandate given by the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2005-2010) to ensure the total development of children according to their rights and needs, the MWFCD set out to prepare the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy for adoption by the government in 2007. This advocated quality care as well as holistic development to children eight years old and under.[11]

However, the government then decided to relegate these tasks to the Permata Negara Committee.[12] Permata Negara was given an RM20mil allocation under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to set up Permata early education and care centres which adopted the integrated Sure Start Programme used by the Pem Green Centre in Corby, UK.[13]

Preschool children, 4-6 years old
The policy objectives overseeing preschools, on the other hand, focus on quality education rather than childcare. In 1972, the Ministry of Education introduced guidelines to regulate enrolment procedures, teacher recruitments and membership to the school boards.[14] Like the welfare ministry, the Education Planning and Research Division also did a joint study with Unicef[15] and subsequently produced a formal early childhood education curriculum document in the form of a preschool guidebook in 1986. This was to coordinate the delivery of preschool education across different institutions in the country. It was later revised into the 1993 Preschool Education Curriculum Guidelines covering activities and teaching materials such as books, cards, building blocks, and etc. Effective January 2003, it became a legal requirement for all public and private preschool facilities to comply with the Ministry of Education’s National Preschool Curriculum. Preschool facilities wanting to implement a separate curriculum required the approval of the Ministry of Education.[16]

Before 1996, the public school system managed by the Ministry of Education began only with primary schools. With the passing of the National Education Act (Act 550) in 1996, however, preschool education was officially declared an integral part of the school system. The national education policy now had to provide preschool education to children from age five so that the necessary preparatory foundation for primary school education could be built using the national preschool curriculum. The Ministry of Education then began setting up preschools as annexes to existing primary schools. Such annexes developed quickly at the rate of some 800 classes a year in pursuit of the plan to cover all primary schools in the country. Some 1,131 preschools were in existence in 1992. By 2009 the number of preschools had built had grown to 7,717.[17]

The Ministry of Rural Development’s KEMAS centres have been set up in underserved rural communities since the early 1970s. There were some 8,307 of them in operation in 2007.[18] In the mid-1970s, the Department of National Unity and Integration in the Prime Minister’s Department also began to set up Perpaduan preschools in urban areas as part of the Rukun Tetangga neighbourhood watch scheme, some 1,496 of which were reported to be in operation in 2007. Islamic preschools have also been established by state religious departments and by Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia or ABIM. [19]