UiTM confers honorary doctorate on Rosmah

SHAH ALAM: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, has been conferred with an honorary doctorate by Universiti Teknologi Mara in recognition of her contribution towards early education.

She received the award from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, who is Chancellor of the university, in a commemorative convocation ceremony yesterday.

In his speech, vice-chancellor Datuk Seri Prof Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah said Rosmah’s diligence towards propagating early education had resulted in the formulation and formalisation of policies in the area.

He said Rosmah had launched the Permata Project to raise the quality of early education programmes and to make it available to more children, especially those in the rural areas, through the setting-up of Permata centres nationwide.

Rosmah, in her acceptance speech, said it was crucial that children under the age of five be given attention and focus because it was a critical formative period from the human development perspective.

She said children were the nation’s future as well as a valuable asset and therefore must be given the opportunity to acquire world-class education.

She disclosed that she had conferred with a group of professionals from various fields, about four years ago, on the importance of early education for children.

She said that Najib, who was then the deputy prime minister, accepted the outcome of the meeting and the Government eventually incorporated in into the National Early Childhood Education Policy.