SOLID FOUNDATION ESSENTIAL TO NURTURE CHILDREN

KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 (Bernama) -- Rosmah Mansor, wife of Malaysian prime
minister Najib Razak has stressed on the importance of laying a solid foundation
to nurture children to yield immense benefits in the future.

Therefore, she said, nurturing young minds in the broadest sense during this
period was critical in laying the foundation of learning and the ability to
learn in the future.

"The challenge in the inculcation of lifelong learning, thus, is not merely
in recognising that it is essential, but also in understanding its significance
in formulating educational policies, programmes and projects for social and
economic development for the 21st century," she said.

She said this in her keynote address at the 15th Malaysian Education
Summit 2011 here Tuesday, entitled 'Nurturing the Young Minds - Building A
Foundation for Lifelong Learning'.

Rosmah said the responsibility in building the foundation for lifelong
learning must not only be shouldered by the government, but from the collective
responsibility, shared among schools, families, communities, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and the private sector.

She added that learning throughout life had taken on a new and even broader
urgency, both in the developed and developing world.

"On the other hand, we need lifelong learning to keep pace with the
exponential growth of knowledge and explosive technological changes that are
happening with lightening speed around us.

"This is to ensure that our economy remains competitive in the world
marketplace, notably, with globalisation and the extremely aggressive and fast
growth in information and communications technology," she said.

Rosmah said lifelong learning was also recognised as a key component in
addressing and solving major global issues such as illiteracy, ill health,
poverty alleviation, social cohesion and inclusion, sustainable development and
empowerment of women.

She said in addition to the various opportunities available for updating
one's cognitive, social and creative skills, fundamental to lifelong learning
was the capacity to learn, unlearn and re-learn, as well as the motivation to
acquire new knowledge and competencies.

Rosmah, who is also patron of the Permata Negara Programme, encouraged
parents to be closely involved in guiding their childrens's discovery of
their environment and surroundings.

She said, in developing their thinking skills, children must be given the
opportunity to personally interact with the environment and be allowed to
reconstruct new knowledge and values, based upon concrete experiences.

The two-day summit which ended Tuesday, was aimed at reconvening leading
education practitioners and key stakeholders to engage in high-level discussions
and brainstorming sessions to spur continous efforts in advancing the education
system.