Life > Education > Kindergarten
Prelude: Preschool in Malaysia
There are multiple different types of preschools, and there is no standard syllabus. What do exist, is the formal mandatory training and certification for principals and teachers before they can operate a preschool. Such training make them ready to handle child psychology, ensure they know how to teach the kids, and include courses related to childcare and development. Preschool is not mandatory, but most parents choose to send their children to preschool.
Majority of preschools are residential units that are converted to be school, with adjustments made to comply with fire hazard assessment and educational guidelines. That compliance is the reason you see an ‘attachment stair’ for windows on upper floor that would not otherwise exist on normal building, so that the kids could escape quickly during emergency. There are also some preschools that shares building with other institutions, such as neighbourhood hall, extension of primary school, mosque, church, temple, shrine, or in some cases even extension of an office building.
Language used in preschool depends on the specific preschool. The most common public preschools usually use Malay as it is the national language. Preschool attached to primary school usually use the language of that primary school, for example, the Tamil National-Type Primary School (SJKT) uses Tamil, and the preschool attached to SJKT will also be using Tamil.
List of common types of preschool:
- (Public) Preschool (Prasekolah) attached to public primary school compound: for kids 3 to 5 years old
- (Public) Community Development Department (KEMAS)’s Day Nursery (TASKA): for kids 1 to 3 years old
- (Public) Community Development Department (KEMAS)’s Infant School (TABIKA): for kids 3 to 5 years old
- (Public) National Unity and Integration Department (JPNIN)’s Unity Infant School (TABIKA Perpaduan): for kids 3 to 5 years old
- (Private) Preschool (Prasekolah) attached to private primary school compound: for kids 3 to 5 years old
- (Private) Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM)’s Muslim Day Nursery (TASKI): for kids 3 to 5 years old
- (Private) Malaysian Islamic Party’s Youth Wing (DPPM)’s Muslim Core Day Nursery (PASTI): for kids 3 to 5 years old
- (Private) United Youth Movement of Malaysia (GBBM) Kindergarten (TADIKA): for kids 3 to 5 years old
There’s many other day nursery (TASKA), infant school (TABIKA), or kindergarten (TADIKA) out there, mostly privately owned.
Before Preschool
Before preschool, my mother taught me the basic of our native language, Malay. The Malay language that I learnt as a kid is more of the standard form of Malay instead of the local dialect known as Kedah Malay. This is because my mother is using standard Malay herself to avoid miscommunication with the local people in Kedah since she was from Perak which uses different dialect of Malay, known as Perak Malay.
In my early life, my father was not always at home because he was part of the Malaysian Royal Armoured Corps (KAD) where he live in the army camp. He does speak the local dialect as he is a Kedah native, but since he’s rarely home I don’t really learn the local dialect in those time. I catch up to the local dialect mostly from the limited environment around me, until the time when my father quit from KAD and live at home where I start to pick up the local dialect from him. Both of my parents don’t use English language so I was not exposed to the language at all in the early days.
You can read more about my life before preschool on the Childhood page.
- English Name: GBBM Kindergarten
- Malay Name: Tadika GBBM
- Chinese Name: 青团运幼儿园
- Location: The spur road beside the police station
- Owner: United Youth Movement of Malaysia
- Instruction Language: Chinese
My Preschool
My preschool is GBBM Kindergarten (Tadika GBBM) in Sungai Lalang, which is a kindergarten run by United Youth Movement of Malaysia. Most people don’t really know about GBBM Kindergarten as it is a Chinese kindergarten, unlike the mainstream kindergarten that uses Malay as the language of instruction. My parents sent me to Chinese kindergarten because it is a prerequisite to enter Chinese primary school later on.
Location
The location of the kindergarten when I was attending it was located on the spur road just beside the small town’s police station. However, they move around quite a lot, so I can’t even point the exact location of the kindergarten. For example, the last time my young brother attended the same kindergarten, it was located in the neighbourhood of Taman Desa Aman 2 instead of the spur road, and that place seemed to be vacant when I revisited it, so they had probably moved again.
Admission
While the kindergarten do receive kids as early as 3 years old, I was admitted to the kindergarten when I was 4 years old in 2001. At there, I started learning my second language, Chinese. I was basically monolingual at home as my parents only speak Malay, so learning a second language is exciting. In addition to that, I also get a Chinese name, Xi Daya (希达雅).
Subjects
The subjects I learnt in the kindergarten are:
- Malay, which is written as ‘National language’ (国语) as it is the national language of Malaysia
- Chinese (华文)
- Mathematics (数学)
- Science (科学)
- Moral Education (道德)
I do not have any record of how the actual subject timetable looked like from my time as all of my stuff from back in kindergarten days had been thrown out over time as my parents deemed them useless.
Education
Kindergarten | Primary School »