No child left behind

Plans are underway to train more early childhood educators in line with the government’s objective of making quality education a reality.

THE moulding of a child’s character is an important aspect of her development and it starts from a very early stage. With parents spending more time at work these days, the reliance on early childcare and education (ECCE) centres has become more than necessary.

Sadly, the majority of the early childcare and education practitioners in the country — such as providers, teachers and caregivers — are either less than qualified or not well-trained.

According to child psychologist and early childhood education advocate Datuk Dr Chiam Heng Keng, all childcare providers in the country are currently required to undergo the basic childcare course (KAKK) in order to obtain the ECCE certificates. But that is not enough to increase the level of professionalism.

“With only two out of 10 child caregivers having the ECCE certificates, it is hard to increase the level of professionalism in this sector,” says Dr Chiam, adding that diploma and degree holders of pre-school practitioners in the private sector stand at the dismal numbers of 1,200 and 500 respectively.

Only teachers in the government-run Kemas and Perpaduan pre-schools are required to attain a Bachelor‘s degree in early childhood education.

The government is realising this fast and through the National Key Economic Area (NKEA), it has identified early child care and education as one of its entry point projects (EPPs) under education.

“To ramp up the quality of early childhood education, the main agenda lies in scaling up of the ECCE centres, especially those in the private sector, and raising the standards in the ECCE training centres,” says Dr Chiam.

NKEA is an initiative of the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to raise the country’s revenue through public-private partnership.

Under the NKEA, seven key enablers are presented to address the major bottlenecks in the scaling-up of ECCE centres, one of which is the setting up of the ECCE council last year.

Acting as a body to support and increase the professionalism of the private ECCE sector, the organisational set up of the council consists of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), Education Ministry (MOE) and the Social Welfare Department (JKM).

“When you talk about professionalism, it is actually about the governance of the ECCE system to look into the quality of the practitioners and the training they receive.

“Eventually, we are aiming for the benchmark as has been set by other professional governing bodies such as the Bar Council,” says Dr Chiam, who is the pro-tem member of the council.

The first call of the council is to propose for all ECCE practitioners to have the minimum qualification of a diploma in early childhood education.

“With better qualifications, these practitioners are able to command respect and better salaries, thus contributing to the gross national income,” says Dr Chiam.

Meanwhile, existing ECCE practitioners who do not meet the minimum qualifications will be sent for in-service training.

MQA will set the guidelines and monitor the quality of the training programmes run at the teacher training institutes, besides several public and private tertiary institutions.

Championing quality ECCE is among the advocacy work carried out by the council.

“In a way, parents must be prepared to pay for quality early education for their children,” she adds.

“It is necessary to raise the awareness on quality ECCE to parents, teachers as well as the ECCE operators,’’ says Dr Chiam.

Crucial years

Citing the results from several studies, she explains that the importance of quality ECCE must not be dismissed because the first five years are the most crucial development period for children.

“It is important for children to feel secure and have their needs attended to.

“Childcare operators must realise that it is impossible to meet the needs of all children if a child caregiver has too many children to tend to,” says Dr Chiam.

“Furthermore, the development gap of children grows wider as they become older. Those who did not have a good grounding in pre-school may not progress along with their peers when in primary school, resulting in drop-out cases,” she adds.

According to her, this is the very reason that developed countries are investing heavily on early childhood education to save on the cost resulting from the consequences of a high drop-out rate such as substance abuse and juvenile crime.

On another note, Dr Chiam reveals that the council is working towards developing a Child Development Index, a useful indicator for the development milestones in children.

Besides establishing the ECCE council, the other enablers in the NKEA ECCE ramp-up include financial assistance to parents through the sliding-scale voucher scheme.

Asked why some parents who could not afford private ECCE did not send their children to government-run pre-schools, Dr Chiam replied that the number of these pre-schools is still too limited to meet the needs of all children.

“Accessibility is a very important feature in ECCE, it is most convenient for parents if they can send their children to ECCE centres in their neighbourhood,” she says.

Another enabler in the NKEA ECCE ramp-up is to partner with property developers and the Housing and Local Government Ministry to lease land for the ECCE centres in housing areas.

“The ECCE council is also providing support and consultancy to corporate companies interested in setting up childcare centres in the workplace,” says Dr Chiam.

National Association of Early Childhood Care and Education Malaysia president Datin Radziah Mohd Daud welcomes the proposal by the ECCE council to set the minimum qualification of ECCE practitioner at the diploma level.

“It is a resounding yes, yes, yes to the call to push for a higher qualification for ECCE practitioners!

“With proper training, ECCE teachers are better equipped with the knowledge and skills to handle children. For instance, ECCE teachers must be familiar with the development milestones of children,” says Datin Radziah.

Parents who feel strongly about quality ECCE also give nods of approval to calls to increase the professionalism of the ECCE sector.

“I was often asked why I transferred my daughter to another pre-school despite the higher fees and logistics problems. I replied that education is important in the early development of a child to mould their learning habits,” says television personality Daphne Iking who has a three-year-old daughter in pre-school.

Iking says she chose a pre-school which teaches according to the child’s learning abilities.

“I feel that it is highly important for the ECCE teachers to have at least a diploma and experience in handling children,” she says.