Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the new preschool curriculum introduced at the beginning of the current school session is designed around six key learning areas aimed at supporting holistic early childhood development.
She explained that the six focus areas are socio-emotional development; physical development and personal wellbeing; language and literacy; spirituality, values and citizenship; creativity and aesthetics; and cognitive development.
According to Fadhlina, the socio-emotional component emphasises helping children recognise and manage their emotions, while also fostering positive relationships with others and their surroundings.
For physical development and personal wellbeing, she said the curriculum focuses on health awareness, including proper nutrition, hygiene and safety. Reproductive and Social Health Education (PEERS) has also been incorporated.
The language and literacy domain, she added, aims to strengthen communication skills by introducing basic literacy and language abilities while encouraging an interest in reading.
Fadhlina noted that the spirituality, values and citizenship domain is divided into three sub-components: Islamic education, moral education and citizenship education. Islamic education will provide Muslim children with basic religious knowledge, values and daily practices, including the fundamentals of Jawi writing.
Moral education, she said, focuses on instilling core values such as compassion, honesty, respect and diligence through fun and engaging methods that promote positive behaviour. Citizenship education aims to raise awareness of rights and responsibilities, nurture patriotism and encourage children to contribute to their families and communities.
In the creativity and aesthetics domain, children are given opportunities to explore their environment and develop imagination and creativity through activities such as visual arts, music, movement and drama.
Meanwhile, the cognitive domain encourages curiosity and exploration, guiding children to think systematically, interact with others, share information and solve problems.
Fadhlina expressed hope that the new curriculum would help nurture well-rounded, balanced and globally competitive learners from an early age.
