Crucial to instil good values in kids

IT is important and urgent to lay the right foundations in the early formative years of a child. It is imperative for educators and parents to instil a good foundation of values in our children when they are still young.

We don’t want them to grow up to be self-centred, uncaring and unloving souls without a conscience and with no respect for the institutions of the land, for law and order, for people or even for life itself.

While it is commendable that the National Preschool Curriculum includes moral values and appreciating our multicultural society, I bemoan the fact that so much more needs to be done by educators and parents for such goals to be achieved.

I admit that it is easier said than done, after having been in the early childhood education industry for more than 20 years. Educators and parents need to have a paradigm shift in their mindset and be properly educated, trained and inspired in such matters.

The authorities must be more proactive and determined in establishing more avenues for educators and parents to be competent in bringing up the next generation.

One cannot give what one does not have. Many do not have what it takes to meaningfully influence and direct young lives.

One does not even need to be observant to be aware of the horrible breaking down of law, order and morality in our society today — corruption, vice, fraud, traffic violations, scams, shoddy construction, bad attitudes and bad manners, the list goes on.

If the next generation is brought up without a strong moral compass, nothing else will matter at the end of the day.

We must wake up to the fact that academic brilliance — the focus of our society today — is no substitute for poverty of character.

LEE SENG CHEE

Chief operating officer

Krista Education Group, Kuala Lumpur