Assessing the Quality of Overall Planning for Public Preschools at Klang Valley in Malaysia

Abstract

Poor overall planning leads to overcrowding in preschools. Ample space and a low teacher-child ratio in activity spaces are crucial. This paper investigates and proposes improvements to the overall planning quality of 26 Malaysian public preschools in Klang Valley. Four planning aspects were assessed (building size, size of indoor activity spaces, enrolment and quality of modules) using the Children’s Physical Environment Rating Scale. Most preschools were too small and the average planning quality of the studied preschools was only rated Fair. Design recommendations discussed in this paper will help designers devise better planning for Malaysian preschools in the future.Keywords: building size; children’s activity spaces; preschool design; learning environmenteISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2289