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The current growth and development of Malaysia's early child care and
education institution

The growth and development of ECCE in Malaysia is closely related to the concept of quality in
ECCE. The quality of early care and education services is absolutely critical in providing a
beginning or foundation for lifelong learning for young children. Neuroscience research
provides new evidence that the early years of development set the foundation for the skills and
competencies that will influence learning abilities, behaviour and health throughout life
(McCain & Mustard, 1999). Thus, there has been growing evidence that high quality early
childhood care and education produce positive outcomes for children by affecting their
developing skills such as social, cognitive, and language skills (Brofenbrenner & Morris, 1998).

ECCE is now has become a fundamental part of Malaysian education system that being founded
on education policies and development plans. Malaysia is committed in addressing inequities of
socio-economic development as part of its aspirations to become a high income nation by 2020.
The Tenth Malaysia Plan (2011-2015) adopted a socio-inclusive development approach that
aimed to contribute to achieve the national 2020 vision.

Following the announcement of the Tenth Malaysia Plan2 (10MP) for the period 2011-2015, the
government also announced the twin road maps, Government Transformation Programme
(GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to enable Malaysia to be a High-Income
Status Nation by 2020. ECCE has been identified as one of the areas capable of increasing
Malaysias Gross National Income (GNI).


The special focus on the high returns on Early Childhood Care and Education ECCE investment
and the need for cross-cutting, inter-sectoral partnership is indeed an excellent move towards
achieving Vision 2020. The government believes that the quality of ECCE program will give an
impact to the countrys economic and social returns.
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Thus, government is doing a tremendous effort in providing quantitative expansion and
qualitative upgrading of the educational system in ECCE in terms of:
- Access to ECCE, especially for children in lower income households, rural and geographically
remote populations, indigenous communities and children with special needs;
- Quality of ECCE, including age appropriate curriculum, trained teachers, facilities for play,
books and other educational materials, nutrition, and parental involvement;
- Effective monitoring and evaluation, coordination and standardization across different ECCE
providers. Malaysias ECCE Programme Access to quality ECCE:
Raise preschool enrolment from 67% in 2009 to 97% in 2020.
Increase the percentage of child centres from 4 to 25% by 2020.
Early childhood educators to have Diploma in Early Childhood Education as the
minimum requirement.
Scale up the private sector participation in the provision of ECCE.

Policy development and implementation require collaboration, consensus and partnership
across all the different actors and sectors involved in different aspects of ECCE. Each sector
including policy makers, teachers, parents, institutions etc obviously has its own roles to play
in order to achieve what has been stated. It is anticipated that by 2020, childcare providers and
preschool teachers would have at least Diploma in ECE/ECCE and Preschool enrolment achieve
97%, indicating that current ECCE status and development are gearing towards vision 2020.

In terms of ECCE Training Centres and keeping up with the 10th Malaysia Plan of equipping
government preschool teachers with a minimum degree qualification, this EPP will stress on
developing ECCE training centres to improve the quality of teachers. At present many teachers
do not possess a certification in ECCE and as 30,000 new teachers will be required by 2020,
this initiative intends to produce more than 200 thousand qualified early childhood educators
to meet the demand.


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The report by the 2011 SEAMEO INNOTECH Report on ECCD Quality Assurance in Southeast
Asia (SEA) talked about a comprehensive overview of the ECCE development programs and
services among SEA countries to distinguish their achievements in ensuring quality assurance. It
is no doubt that SEA countries have their unique way of providing ECCE development programs
and services to young children based on their own national principles and beliefs.
So, in terms of the ranking and step taken towards being champion of the ETP and ECCE, our
government is placing childrens needs in the forefront of socio-economic development shapes
the path forward for Malaysia to address inequities efficiently and effectively by monitoring
their progress as well as fulfilment in the implementation of the CRC. In ensuring quality
assurance of ECCE programs and services countries like Brunei Darussalam, Philippines,
Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are implementing specific
regulations and legislations deemed necessary.
This will also relate to the effort by the government whereby quantitative expansion and
qualitative upgrading of the educational system in ECCE are being rapidly embarking in terms
of:
- Access to ECCE, especially for children in lower income households, rural and geographically
remote populations, indigenous communities and children with special needs;
- Quality of ECCE, including age appropriate curriculum, trained teachers, facilities for play,
books and other educational materials, nutrition, and parental involvement;
- Effective monitoring and evaluation, coordination and standardization across different ECCE
providers. Malaysias ECCE Programme Access to quality ECCE:
Raise preschool enrolment from 67% in 2009 to 97% in 2020.
Increase the percentage of child centres from 4 to 25% by 2020.
Early childhood educators to have Diploma in Early Childhood Education as the
minimum requirement.
Scale up the private sector participation in the provision of ECCE.
The 2011 SEAMEO INNOTECH Report said that Malaysia and Indonesia are considered ahead of
others with regards to the development of quality assurance frameworks in ECCE development.
The reasons being that these two countries have implemented the most number of quality
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assurance mechanisms through enacted regulations or legislation.

The growth and development in the ECCE in Malaysia has been rapid and unprecedented
nowadays. This has undoubtedly been fuelled by many factors such as the awareness of the
importance of ECCE by the whole community. The most important catalyst for having such
awareness is the government concern and investment in ECCE. Maintaining and upgrading the
quality of ECCE however, is a challenge particularly in the current fluctuating economic
environment. It is our responsibility to play our roles in making sure the growth and
development of ECCE in Malaysia would be parallel with our vision 2020.