KUALA LUMPUR: The Community Development Department (Kemas) will expand Quranic education in early childhood education by establishing 4,000 Pre-Tahfiz Kindergarten classes involving 60,000 children nationwide this year.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the initiative reflected the government’s commitment to ensuring Al-Quran education remained a cornerstone in building a morally upright, knowledgeable, and competitive young generation.
“This effort began with the implementation of a pilot project in 100 Kemas kindergartens, involving 1,500 children. The response has been very encouraging, and by 2024, participation has increased to 55,269 children.
“This shows that the community welcomes Kemas efforts to strengthen Islamic values within the country’s early childhood education system,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also the Rural and Regional Development Minister, said that apart from education, Kemas would implement a transformation by strengthening a cross-functional approach, involving collaboration across all internal divisions of the department as well as the involvement of government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and both the corporate and private sectors.
He said Kemas would also restructure key programmes such as ‘Hari Potensi Tabika Kemas’, ‘Wacana Ilmu Wanita Inspirasiku’ (WINS), the Islamic Arts Festival (iFest) and other programmes, consolidating them into one main event known as the Kemas Festival (FESMA).
“This measure will not only reduce operating costs, such as logistics, rental, and manpower, but also enhance the effectiveness and coherence of the programmes implemented,” he said, adding that Kemas would continue to be a driver of change in building a more dynamic rural community.
