‘Early childhood education more than just imparting knowledge’
KUCHING: Early childhood education is more than just about imparting knowledge in that it also seeks to inculcate good values into the young minds, said Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
She said inculcating such values from young will help shape children into good human beings, adding that this was something her ministry has always stressed on.
“We have emphasised the importance of childhood education to serve as a foundation for our children to grow to become good human beings,” she said when receiving a courtesy call from Krista Taman Centurion at her office in Petra Jaya yesterday.
Krista Taman Centurion director John Koh led a delegation to brief her about their recent ‘ 1heart2bless’ community project which involved extending gratitude to frontliners fighting the Covid19 pandemic.
The project involved the children writing ‘ Thank You’ cards and parents preparing fruits in containers to express their gratefulness to the frontliners.
In praising the initiative, Fatimah said it was a creative way of teaching young children to be grateful and thankful of others, particularly those who are sacrificing themselves to keep the community safe during the pandemic.
“It is for a good cause. The simple gesture of providing fruits to frontliners goes a long way to express gratitude. I hope other kindergartens can emulate the gesture.
“Our children need to be taught to be grateful, knowing when and how to thank people who work tirelessly to make sure we are all safe,” she said.
Earlier, Koh said the children and their parents had come up with 400 ‘ Thank You’ cards in total while 500 fruits in containers had been distributed.
He said 350 containers were delivered to Kampung Haji Baki where the Enhanced Movement Control Order was recently lifted, while the rest went to Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
“We started the ‘ 1heart2bless’ community project in 2011 and YB Fatimah has joined our project since 2013.
“This year, we want to thank the frontliners. So we prepared two empty cards each for our children who completed them with the assistance of their parents,” he said, adding the cards and fruits were delivered to both Kampung Haji Baki and SGH on Nov 11.
We have emphasised the importance of childhood education to serve as a foundation for our children to grow to become good human beings. Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah