11,000 Kemas centres ready
More than 11,000 public preschools, kindergartens and childcare centres under the Community Development Department (Kemas) are prepared to resume operations on Wednesday, says Rural Development Minister Datuk Dr Abd Latiff Ahmad.
He assured parents that all standard operating procedure (SOP) had been put in place at these facilities.
“The teachers and the assistants have also undergone training on how to conduct a proper teaching and learning process during the recovery movement control order (MCO).
“We hope that this will help parents who send their child to the centre and they can focus on doing their work or other daily activities,” he told reporters at the personal protective equipment (PPE) volunteers appreciation programme at Dewan Felda Tenggaroh 5 here yesterday.
“In Johor alone, we have 1,991 preschools and kindergartens, and 56 childcare centres attended by a total of 24,673 children from the age of two to six,” he said.
He said he was also planning to meet the Rural Development Ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Dr Ahmad Jailani Muhamed Yunus to discuss how the ministry could assist private preschools, kindergartens and childcare centres.
“The facilities in Kemas are not affected by the MCO because it is 99% funded by the government – parents only need to pay RM20 per month, while private facilities are charging parents RM150 to RM200 per month.
“We will look into how we can help them, but we need to see how they apply their SOP first,” he added.
He also said that the government was currently doing everything it could to help the people get back on their feet and to ensure the country recovers.
“The focus during MCO is the people’s lives.
“Now that we are in the recovery MCO, the focus now is on their livelihood,” he said.
On the programme, Abd Latiff said 104 volunteers from Kemas had been involved in making 17,540 PPE for frontliners during the MCO.
“The PPE have been distributed to eight hospitals in the state.
“Volunteers from seven districts have been working day and night to meet the high demand of PPE during the MCO until today.
“The volunteers are the unsung heroes that the government is thankful for. While our frontliners are busy saving lives, they are busy sewing protective equipment for the frontliners,” he said.