Ranau mission kindergarten receives encouraging response from parents

RANAU – The newly established St Peter Claver Ranau (SPCR)’s Tadika Kasih Bonda continues to receive encouraging response from parents in the area when 20 four-year-olds were accepted to enroll in its new intake this year.

Headmistress Deyana Johnny said despite the inadequate facilities the kindergarten is experiencing since its inception in 2015, teaching staff at the school continue to hope for a better future for the school in the days ahead.

“Currently we are coping with problems like lack of staff and lack of classrooms. We are operating with 10 teachers, including myself, and only three classes. We are caring for 20 four-year-olds, 40 five-year-olds, and 45 six-year-olds.

“Imagine how the situation is when one of them needs to go to the washroom. We have to escort those children to the washroom in order to ensure their safety,” she said.

On the issue of classrooms, Deyana said the over-quota numbers of students gave them the thrust to improvise, which means getting some of the children at school to have outside-of-classroom activities.

Towards the end of 2017, SPCR received a donation of RM210 thousand from the Vatican Foundation to build a kindergarten (Tadika Kasih Bonda) which is currently located in the old church building (Fr Salm Hall).

SPCR parish priest, Father Nicholas Stephen said earlier that Tadika Kasih Bonda, which uses English as its medium, and now requiring a building to run its own programmes, receives a very encouraging response from Christian students in this area.

To accommodate the construction of the building, the church needs an allocation of RM750 thousand, and the Vatican Foundation has contributed RM210 thousand through the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu, he added.

Therefore, he said, the contribution of all the people is needed to realise the completion of the building, thus helping the kindergarten to develop and enabling it to enroll more children in the future. – Clarence Dol