By Zareef Muzammil
SHAH ALAM, Jan 12 — The state government intends to establish Selangor Preschool Centre for Special Children (Anis) in each local authority to meet the demands of parents.
Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said the efforts to establish a daycare centre for children with disabilities (OKU) aged five to six years will help ease the burden of low-income parents.
He said that there were nearly 100 applications to enter the first Anis preschool established in Section 7 here with 35 students currently in attendance.
“It is this reason we see there is a need to create more Anis preschools. In addition to ensuring special children receive education, we want to provide parents the opportunity to send their children here because the cost of special childcare centres and preschools elsewhere are rather expensive.
“So, we have to discuss this with Anis. However, we see this model (the Selangor Preschool Centre for Special Children in Section 7) as a pilot project that seems successful. The most important thing after this is to see whether it can survive,” he said when met after launching the centre, here today.
Also present were state executive councillor for family Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, Shah Alam Mayor Nor Fuad Abdul Hamid and the Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor (Yawas) general manager Gan Pei Nei.
The Anis Preschool Centre was developed to provide educational opportunities and facilities for students with learning difficulties.
The initiative is specifically for children with autism, down syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and children with developmental delays (GDD).
Two learning sessions are held, namely the morning session (8.30am to 12.30pm) and the afternoon session (1.30pm to 5.30pm).
