Kindergarten

Huzaifah attends the Tabika Perpaduan in Presint 8, which is located just next to the school where hubby is teaching. Hah, I could almost see some frowning at me, "What? You are sending your son to a government kindie?!"

Yes.
Not REAL kids, or Smart Reader, or Q-Dees or Genius Aulad or PASTI or TASKI Abim.
I send my son to a good ol' tadika gomen.

And contrary to the old belief that "budak-budak yang pergi tadika kerajaan ni reti nyanyi-nyanyi, menari-menari saja", the syllabus they use there is similar to the one used in pre-school classes organized in primary schools. Tadika Kemas, Tabika Perpaduan and Pra-sekolah are all using similar syllabus which had been vetted by the Ministry of Education. Of course, the quality of teaching varies from one kindie/pre-school class to another, as the teacher themselves play a great role. Still, Huzaifah gets to learn Bahasa Malaysia, Mathematics, English, Pendidikan Islam, and on top of that, he has Iqra' class from 12.00 to 1.00 p.m. from Monday to Thursday. Alhamdulillah, the teachers are more keen on making sure that the children could recite their do'a and ayat-ayat lazim better than training them to sing and dance.

Both hubby and I both went to good ol' Tadika Kemas too - and we thought, why not try sending our son to one too? Granted, Tabika Perpaduan is not exactly a Tadika Kemas - but it is much or less of the same standard. Nevertheless, we also have to keep Huzaifah's own interest in mind and we think maybe next year, we'll try to enrol him in the Pra-sekolah class in the school where his father is teaching (both secondary and primary schools are on the same compound). Huzaifah himself had already indicated to his Ayah that he would like to go to "sekolah yang besar tu" next year, insya Allah. And we are aware that there are some differences in the quality of teaching, and that is only to be expected what with teachers in pre-school classes in primary schools being graduates with degree in education (DG41) as opposed to grade17/26 'teachers' in other tadika gomen

There have been studies that show that the differences between the facilities, tools, learning environment, teachers' qualification et cetera between those provided in government kindergarten and private kindergarten is not that significant. Try reading this for example - on the differences between private kindergartens and Tadika Kemas.

I'm not saying that there is no point in sending kids to expensive private kindie - a lot of my friends do just that and I have nothing against it. To each their own.

The primary care-givers to the children are us, the parents. The bulk of education responsibility should sit with us - not sub-contracted to the school, the teachers. For some 'reasons' that appear to be myths once I get to know the kindie and teachers better, sending kids to government kindergartens is not a 'cool' or an 'in' thing to do. I don't mind not being seen as cool, but I must insist that government kindergartens are not as bad as many deem them to be. They might not be great - but they are okay. And there's nothing wrong with letting kids play a lot. Kids learn while they play, we just have to observe them closely to realize that.

So, I guess more need to be done to highlight the fact that government kindergartens are not a bad choice either when it comes to sending our children for pre-school education.
Not bad at all.