BY: SAADIAH SAIHIDIN

Questions, doubts and queries are looming over the proposal by the education ministry to start schooling for children at age six and stakeholders are asking for more time, details and information to study the plan.

These stakeholders feel that optional entry for six-year-olds into Year 1 in Malaysian schools must be backed by suitable classrooms, prepared and adequately-trained teachers and a robust, flexible education system.

Others cite that academic ability alone should not determine whether a child begins primary school at six, and that it shouldn’t be just about literacy or numeracy but actually the planned ratio between teachers and students.

Gains Education Group stated that if children with different competencies are placed in the same classroom, there must be an appropriate ratio for teachers to provide individualised attention as overcrowded classrooms will make teaching difficult.

There are also concerns emerging that allowing six-year-olds to enter Year 1 could create the perception that students starting at seven are weaker or less capable and educationists believe this matter must be given consideration.

These educationists point out that in advanced and developed countries early formal schooling was initiated only after heavy investments and research and development were made in structured early childhood programmes.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher