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Grants approved for tadika, taska

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Fatimah (centre), Saadiah (left, back row) and Salina (on Saadiah’s left) with GTK recipients. Photo: Mohd Alif Noni

KUCHING: The two additional approved uses for special annual grant (GTK) allocations is an effort by the state government to reduce the burden of early childhood education institutions (IPAKKs) and also assist them in preparing to resume operations.

Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the two additional approved uses for the GTK fund included helping to pay for rental of premises and the salaries of teachers and staff, especially private IPAKKs.

“Secondly, GTK can also be used to purchase cleaning and sanitisation supplies and necessities to fulfil post Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs),” she said at a press conference Wisma Kebajikan here yesterday.

She noted that initially, the RM5,000 GTK fund for registered IPAKKs in Sarawak could only be used for four purposes, namely for balanced meals for the children, fun learning activities, professional development of educators and carers, and for programmes which involved parents.

“During the movement control order (MCO) which began on March 18, all IPAKKs had been instructed to close. This brought about much concern on the part of parents regarding the payment of fees for private tadika and taska during the MCO period, as well as the safety of their children attending these institutions after the MCO.

“Private tadika and taska operators, meanwhile, faced issues of paying rent and the salaries of teachers, carers, and other staff — seeing that most private tadika and taska did not have income in April and May,” she said.

Fatimah said that her ministry had conducted a survey to obtain feedback on the problems faced by IPAKKs during the MCO period.

She revealed that the survey had found that 92.2 percent of institutions are faced with the issue of parents not wanting to pay for fees as their children are not attending the taska or tadika.

“Also, 80.9 percent of tadika and taska had problems in paying the salaries of staff as there was no source of income aside from the fees from parents,” she said.

She informed that as of May 31, there are a total of 3,113 tadika and taska in Sarawak, with 577 of these being private IPAKKs.

“Of these 3,113 registered IPAKKs in Sarawak, 2,853 (92 percent) have applied for GTK and payment has been approved for 2,791 IPAKKS,” she said.

During the press conference, two IPAKKs were presented with their RM5,000 GTK allocations, namely Tadika Sri Keria represented by its principal and director Ain Nureen and Taska Cahaya Horizons represented by its principal Ng Lee Boon.

Fatimah said that for the approved payments to other IPAKKs, the funds were credited directly into their respective accounts.

Also present were the ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Saadiah Abdul Samat and early childhood development division head Salina Bujang.

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