‘Include good parenting tips in pre-marital programmes’

PROVIDERS of pre-marriage courses have been urged to include elements of responsible parenting in their course syllabus.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Azizah Md Dun said these elements were already included in the LPPKN (National Population and Family Development Board) pre-marriage courses.

“In the courses by LPPKN, couples are educated on how to be responsible parents and control stress-related emotions around them.

“I hope other pre-marriage courses offered by those outside LPPKN will expand their syllabus to include these elements,” she said in reply to Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud (AmanahKota Raja) in Parliament yesterday.

Azizah was responding to Dr Siti Mariah’s question on how to reduce the risk of parents becoming abusive to their children, especially due to stress factors.

Earlier, Dr Siti Mariah had asked for the number of child abuse cases between 2008 and this year.

To that, Azizah said a total of 17,497 cases of child abuse were recorded over the past eight years.

“It was on the rise between 2008 and 2013, starting with 1,708 cases and reaching 2,346 cases in 2013.

“The numbers dropped to 2,303 in 2014 and 2,270 last year, but as of June this year, we already have 1,210 cases recorded,” she added.