The Malaysian Insight

THE change of name for the National Permata Programme (Permata) to “Genius” was part of a cabinet-approved holistic revamp of the childhood education programme once helmed by former prime minister Najib Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor.

A Putrajaya source told The Malaysian Insight that shortly after Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya on May 9, 2018, a committee was formed to review and audit the effectiveness of individual programmes under Permata.

The decision to revamp several of these programmes and to rebrand Permata was made collectively by the cabinet, the source said.

Recent media reports had quoted Education Minister Maszlee Malik as announcing that Permata would be renamed Genius, while almost all programmes would remain the same.

The news sparked criticism towards Maszlee, with social media commentators saying what they saw as yet another superficial change made by the PH government.

However, the source said the name change comes with a total fine-tuning of operations of all Permata programmes.

“The new name was decided and approved by the cabinet in a meeting three or four weeks ago,” said the source.

Amongst the changes include placing Permata programmes, which used to be under the Prime Minister’s Office, under the responsibility of the Education Ministry, along with the support of six other ministries.

The six are the Women, Family and Community Ministry, Youth and Sports Ministry, Rural Development Ministry, Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, Local Government and Housing Ministry, and the Health Ministry.

“These seven ministries will discuss and determine the way forward for all eight Permata programmes,” the source told The Malaysian Insight.

Permata, which was Rosmah’s brainchild, had been criticised for its alleged dodgy operations especially after it was awarded a large allocation of RM54.3 million in Budget 2018 during the Barisan Nasional administration.

However, the source said that despite its controversies, the programme has helped raise the standard of early childhood education.

“Admittedly, there has been a large amount of effort put in to raise the quality of early childhood education, as well as identifying those who are talented in their respective fields,” the source said.

“The government will determine the direction of these programmes and continue to benefit children and youth,” he said. – April 17, 2019.