In a bid to flatten the COVID-19 curve in the country and to stimulate the economy again, the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) was implemented on 10th June till 31st August 2020. While the public schools have been given the green light to open for national and international exam candidates on 24th June 2020, the private education system from child care, preschools, and primary schools to secondary are still hanging on to their hopes to reopen soon as well.
The Private Education Entrepreneur Association (PEEAM) together with education associations namely, Persatuan Pendidik Professional Bahasa Malaysia (PPPBM), Persatuan Tadika Swasta Petaling Perdana (PTSPP), Persatuan Tadika Islam Malaysia (PERTIM) and Persatuan Pengusaha Pendidikan Swasta Sabah (PPPSS) held an online Press Conference as an effort to propose a solution for the private education sector known as the Private Education Recovery Proposal (PERP). PEEAM intends to table it to the government in the middle of June.
PERP aims to seek the government’s support to assist the private education sector on five main factors, namely financial assistance and incentives for education institutions, reopening of all education institutions and tax incentive for 10 years through the income exemption, recognising and regulating online learning programme and finally, Merging Taska and Tadika under one administration agency.
The proposal will represent the private education entrepreneurs on putting up their voices, needs and challenges to the Ministry of Education based on the survey-based statistics from 1,125 respondents who are the operators of different education segments nationwide namely nurseries, kindergartens, tuition centres, enrichment programmes, home-schools, private schools and other private institutions.
67% of the private education operators responded in PEEAM’s survey that they could sustain for no longer than 3 months if their businesses remain closed and they seek to open by July 2020.