Eveleen Ling, who heads the organisation, said parents were turning to home schooling and small-scale learning centres instead.
She told FMT this was because many were working from home under the conditional movement control order (CMCO).
“Parents are now looking for convenience and safety,” she said, adding they preferred learning establishments that were closer to their homes and whose timetables were flexible.
Ling voiced concern for those entering Standard One as they had spent the last year learning through online classes, the quality of which she said varied from kindergarten to kindergarten.
“Primary school teachers will face challenges in adjusting their lessons towards remedial and intervention programmes to suit the different abilities of the children,” she said.
Schools are scheduled to start the new session on Jan 20, but Ling said it was likely the education ministry would decide on another postponement considering the increasing number of daily Covid-19 infections in the Klang Valley.
However, she said, another nationwide closure would be “an unnecessary waste of school time for children in green zones”.
The prolonged CMCO has caused financial strains on kindergarten operators.
Olive Tan, headmistress of Star Vista Education in Kajang, said several parents had “disappeared” after failing to pay their children’s fees.
“We’ve come across handphone numbers that are no longer in use,” she said. “When we ask for payment, some parents refuse, arguing that online classes are not the same as physical classes.”
She said the need to pay for workers’ Covid-19 tests and health and safety equipment had added to the cost of running kindergartens.
However, she also told FMT her establishment had been fortunate enough to obtain the education ministry’s permission to open ahead of time. Pupils had been allowed to return since Tuesday, she added.
She said the kindergarten was allowing parents to pay fees in instalments.
New Sun Moon principal Aidelle Pang said it was important for kindergartens to ride the storm together with parents, especially those facing pay cuts.
“We’ve had parents walking in and giving us letters saying they were experiencing financial constraints,” said Pang, whose centre in Bangsar reopened last month.
With a 50% decrease in school fees, she said, the school had taken a hit as it had also invested in temperature scanners and sanitisers.
But she was optimistic about the school’s ability to operate under the new normal, adding that children appeared to be more willing than adults to obey SOPs.