KUCHING: All childcare centres (taska) registered under the Social Welfare Department are required to display their registration number at their premises, effective Jan 1 next year.
Women, Family, and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the move is necessary to assure parents regarding the licensing status of childcare centres where their children are placed.
"My ministry is often questioned about why there are unregistered childcare centres and how can we know they have never applied for a license from the department.
"So now, we are making it compulsory for childcare centres to display their registration number on the wall so that guardians sending their children can know that the centres are registered," she said at a programme with the Sarawak media here on Saturday night.
She said the initiative is among the ministry's main agendas for 2025.
Nancy said other agendas for the upcoming year include rolling out the Autisn Learning Fee Assistance initiative and the development of an Autism Service Centre, involving allocations of RM15mil and RM5 mil respectively.
"The prime minister announced this during the 2025 Budget, and it is a new initiative aimed at ensuring the welfare of autistic children. It is time for the government to provide focused support and early intervention for autistic children without placing them alongside non-autistic children," she said.
Meanwhile, the Santubong member of parliament also announced that RM5.6 million has been allocated this year for development projects in her constituency.
She said the allocation includes RM3.17 million for the Village Connectivity Road (JPD) programme, RM500,000 for the Rural Transformation Project (RTP), and RM967,000 for the People-Friendly Project (PMR).