Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor said today that education, particularly at an early stage, is the most important tool to nurture children into responsible leaders and good citizens and shape the future for a better world.
The wife of the prime minister said that education would give children the capacity, capability and value system to be good leaders, as well as the social mobility to uplift themselves.
In her keynote address at the inaugural First Ladies Summit at the Palace of the Golden Horses near here, Rosmah said that children should be taught not only to strive for economic and technological advancement but also to foster and cultivate harmonious societies which care for the people.
“I have faith that education that begins early in the life of a child, through career and lifelong learning, is not only the keystone to knowledgeable and creative adults, but also fundamental to the inculcation of values, ethics and roles, which ultimately shape the nation’s character, growth and social cohesion,” she told a packed ballroom.
Fifteen first ladies are attending the summit themed, “A Child Today, A Leader Tomorrow”. Also attending are six representatives of first ladies and 20 ministers.
The First Ladies Summit 2010, initiated and hosted by Rosmah, focuses on ways in which families, communities and governments can work together to uncover the potential in every child.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak opened the summit at Seri Perdana last night.
Rosmah pointed out that history had shown that countries that neglected education, particularly early education, would eventually realise that they would lose out and would struggle to move their economies forward and create progress in their societies.
She also said that as investing in children helped to lay the much-needed foundation for nation building and global peace, education must not only transmit knowledge that was developed in the past but also anticipate future knowledge, skills and behaviours needed by youths when they assume adult roles.
“Education as well as social environments of the family and community are the major influences in empowering and enriching children with the necessary knowledge, positive values and skills towards these goals,” she stressed.
Rosmah said that given the large proportion of young people, especially in the developing world, they could form a significant demographic that could drive economic growth and contribute to global welfare if they were sufficiently educated and prepared for the future.
“If not they could be marginalised and radicalised, thus becoming easy recruits for subversive elements that can lead to domestic and international insecurity and instability. They may also stray and be lured into lives of vice and crime,” said Rosmah.
Saying that early childhood education and care, or ECEC, was a subject close to her heart, Rosmah said that it gave children below the age of four from underprivileged families an early start in life.
Beginning with five pilot centres in 2007, the ECEC is now implemented in 500 centres nationwide which benefits more than 20,000 children who are from rural areas and from among the urban poor.
She also told the audience that the building of schools for gifted children between the ages of 15 to 17 years, which is directly attached to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), was underway and that the first intake of about 150 academically gifted children would commence in January next year.
In her speech, Rosmah also stressed that the community and the state had an equally important role in nurturing children to be good leaders, and as such they should design policies that could stimulate intellectual, cultural and spiritual development among children.
Rosmah also said that the world faced “many intractable problems” such as poverty and malnutrition, gender inequality, environmental degradation, weak governance systems, economic crisis, armed conflicts, security threats and societal failures, all of which were still plaguing humankind.
“If we look around us today, we see a world with so many conflicts and so many problems, almost all of which are caused by mankind. Who are these people? Weren’t all these people once children? What happened in their lives that made them do these harmful acts with neither mercy nor remorse?” she asked.
“More than half of the world’s population, mainly in developing countries, live in abject poverty, without clean water, proper sanitation and enough food to eat.
“The poor include refugees fleeing conflict situations and more than one billion children, who are the most visible victims of malnutrition,” Rosmah said.
Citing Unicef’s “The State of the World’s Children” Report 2009, Rosmah said 24,000 children died each day due to poverty and 121 million children worldwide had no access to education and nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or even sign their names
comments
May I know which countries were these first ladies came from? I read they are mostly from third world, how come I don't see Michelle Obama here?? Even Ho Ching (Spore) is not here??
Does the First Lady Khajidsuren Bolormaa of Mongolia attended this summit.. many children of Mongolia suffered from the same predicament especially.....
Education future of the country,doomed if lead by a 'powerless' Education Minister who condone to racialism and selling of sexual enchantment pills to their students.
Tell us why your husband buy 2 unsink submarines, dont know what name overexpensive helicopter? Are we under attack? Now in 2016 no need PMR. Is that the key to the future?
No comments:
Post a Comment