Early childhood learning: PAS moots allowance for stay-at-home mums

Summary

• Two PAS lawmakers are in favour of a special allowance for stay-at-home mothers as a means of improving early childhood education.

• Afnan says with this, mothers can focus on providing love and education for their children at home.

PARLIAMENT | Two PAS MPs today suggested the government provide a special allowance for stay-at-home mothers as a way to improve early childhood education.

According to Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden (PN-Alor Setar) and Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (PN-Kubang Kerian), such financial assistance can help mothers who wish to stop working to spend more time with their young children.

"As Kubang Kerian said earlier, that parents should be able to provide love for their children, would you agree (with my suggestion) that the government should treat 'surirumah' (housewives) as a professional career and perhaps consider providing an appropriate amount of allowance for them?

"By having this, the mothers can focus on providing love and education for their children at home," Afnan (above, right) said when interjecting Tuan Ibrahim's debate speech at the Dewan Rakyat.

Tuan Ibrahim, who is PAS deputy president, was debating a special briefing about early childhood development by the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Women, Children and Community Development.

Costly daycare

In response to Afnan, Tuan Ibrahim said he agreed with the suggestion "100 percent" and asked the Dewan Rakyat to include it as part of his debate.

"Because the costs to send a child (to a daycare centre) can be so high that in some cases, a working mother would spend almost all of her salary on it.

"So, if we can give this (allowance) as a contribution, the country should look into this aspect," he said.

Earlier in his speech, Tuan Ibrahim said that while he agreed that the country's early childhood education system needs strengthening, the government should also look into how they can help parents to have more time with their children.

The briefing today saw PSSC chairperson Yeo Bee Yin (Harapan-Puchong) raising several proposals to strengthen Malaysia's early childhood education system.

They urged the government to enact a special law to develop and govern the country's early childhood education sector, and to streamline it under the authority of a single agency.

The PSSC also mooted financial assistance and benefits for childcare centres and parents, among others.

Problems women face

Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Muda-Muar), in expressing his support for the PSSC's proposals, pointed to problems modern women face as they juggle career and family.

He said many professional women who have young children had to abandon their careers because they could not afford to send their children to a daycare centre or hire a babysitter.

Those who continue working are facing burnout, he added.

According to Syed Saddiq, parents today would have to fork out RM2,000 just to register their children in the centres, on top of having to pay monthly fees.

"They cannot rely on government-run preschools or nurseries because they are not sufficient.

"We see from reports that Malaysia needs around 40,000 nurseries, but the number of registered nurseries doesn't even reach 4,000," he said.

Reporting by Hariz Mohd, Alyaa Alhadjri, B Nantha Kumar

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