PRIVATE and government-run kindergarten and preschool teachers need a special salary scheme to bring them out of the poverty level.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government wanted these teachers to earn a reasonable salary so that they could focus on teaching their pupils.

“The government’s wish is to help these teachers, who have all this while been left behind, neglected and sidelined… we want them to be given a special salary scheme. Although, not similar to the scheme for teachers at government schools, but (something so that) they will be better off.”

Zahid said this when opening the Bagan Datuk Preschool Sports Carnival in Hutan Melintang today. 

He said the government proposed that training for teachers of private and government-run kindergartens and preschools be streamlined to enable them to obtain minimum salary. Currently, these teachers do not have a minimum salary scheme, as is accorded to other teachers. 

Zahid said he had asked the Education Ministry, Kemas, the National Unity and Integration Department and a number of higher education institutions to carry out a detailed study on streamlining training for kindergarten and preschool teachers.

“There are teachers who receive a very small salary while there are others who get quite a high salary because they teach at private kindergartens.

“When the training is streamlined and the syllabi coordinated, I hope these teachers will be given at least a minimum salary,” he said.

Zahid said the streamlining of education needed to be done to avoid gaps between government and private education institutions.

He said the process of early nurturing and character-building should also be streamlined with the quality of education as these pupils would be the country’s most important assets.

In Bagan Datuk, when speaking after the ground-breaking ceremony of Politeknik Bagan Datuk, Zahid said the government was drawing up a mechanism to revamp the country’s kindergarten and preschool education system, including streamlining their curriculum and syllabi.

“I chaired the National Social Council meeting last Friday, in which several proposals were made on streamlining the early education system involving kindergartens and preschools.”

He said also the minimum salary issue was also discussed, as well as short-term courses for those with the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) qualification.

Zahid, who is also Bagan Datuk MP, said the mushrooming of kindergartens and preschools in the country had lead to gaps in the syllabi of government-run and the private-run institutions.

He urged kindergarten and preschool teachers with only SPM level qualification to take up short-term courses for at least three months to enable their minimum salary to be standardised. – Bernama, November 26, 2017.