12MP which costs taxpayers a whopping RM4.2 million should be thrown in the dustbin if the current government has no will to act on its recommendations.
Chapter 10 – 3 of the 12th Malaysian Plan (12MP) says as follow:
“Lack of Coordination and Governance”
There is an overlap of functions among ministries and agencies with respect to public and private early childhood care and education (ECCE). This resulted in unsynchronised curricula and differences in quality of teachers, teaching and learning methods, as well as poor governance. These led to inconsistency in the outcomes of ECCE programmes.”
The findings of 12MP on ECCE is accurate and precise. Currently, we have:
- 6,215 pre-schools under the Ministry of Education;
- 203 pre-schools under ABIM;
- 823 kindergartens under Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri;
- 1,781 Tabika Perpaduan under Kementerian Perpaduan;
- 8,403 Tabika KEMAS under Kementerian Pembangunan Luar Bandar; and
- 7,875 kindergartens in private sector.
Pursuant to the findings of 12MP, I posed a question to the Prime Minister if there is any plan to merge any Ministries or agencies with overlapping functions in relation to early childhood care and education at public and private sectors.
The question was answered by Senior Education Minister on 30 November 2021. Much to my disappointment, the answer from the Senior Education Minister denied that there is any overlap and therefore MOE will stick to the existing legal provisions.
Overlapping of functions with respect to public and private ECCE is not a new issue. When Pakatan Harapan was the government, we undertook 2 important decisions to try to solve the problem .
First, PERMATA formerly parked under the Prime Minister’s Department was moved to MOE.
Second, we created a joint committee between MOE and KPWKM, chaired by Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the then Deputy Prime Minister, to discuss the merging of agencies with overlapping functions.
It is frustrating to know that the current government has no plan to continue the initiative started by Pakatan Harapan.
12MP is the 2nd thickest plan in history and Ismail Sabri’s government spent RM4.2 million to prepare it. What’s the point of preparing such a thick and well-written report when there is no political will to implement the recommendations stated in the Plan?
If the Senior Education Minister is reluctant to acknowledge the findings of 12MP and to implement it accordingly, he might as well throw it into dustbin. Or resign and allow another capable leader to lead the ministry.