Are there short-term effects of social, emotional and physical competence in early childhood education and care centres?

A national early childhood education and care programme known as Permata Negara (literally translated as 'National Gems') was carried out under the patronage of Malaysian First Lady, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor since 2007. This study was carried out in Johor state, one of the 13 states in Malaysia, involving 45 centres to assess the development of children within age 1 to 4 years old in three developmental aspects, namely physical, emotional, and social. Observation based on check list of Monitoring and Evaluation Program National PERMATA 2010 developed by the evaluation committee headed by Prof. Dato' Dr. Aminah Ayob was used to obtain the quantitative data in two observations within a three-month period in early October and at the end of December 2010. All age groups showed encouraging development in the aspects studied. These results provide a better understanding on the performance and assessment of children in the PERMATA nursery in Malaysia thus implying the positive results of this noble project in moulding children to be smart and emotionally mature citizens in future. It is suggested that more research needs to be carried out especially in longitudinal perspectives to provide a better measurement of the success of this project.

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