IT is indeed sad to read about yet another child, Nurain Damia Mohd Naqudden, who lost her life after allegedly being subject to abuse at a babysitter’s place.
The mushrooming of daycare centres in housing estates is a cause for concern. Working parents may not be aware if the centres have trained operators or if they are licensed operators.
Sometimes, the price charged is a motivating factor for parents to leave their children at the centres. Another consideration are the centres’ location, which may be near their homes, and, thus, convenience takes precedence over other considerations when parents leave their children at such centres, not realising how the operators are treating their children.
Childcare centres in Malaysia are governed under the Childcare Act 1984. What is a childcare centre under this Act?
A childcare centre (or a home operator who runs such a service) includes any premises in which four or more children under 4, from more than one household, are received to be looked after for a reward.
Many operators call this kind of arrangement daycare or babysitting, but as long as four or more children under 4 are at a home that is not their own and are being cared for with payment, it is a childcare centre and, therefore, will be under the purview of the Act.
Under the provisions of the Act, all such centres shall be registered and any person running, managing and operating such a service without registration is guilty of an offence and punishable by a fine.
Tadika and kindergartens are exempted from the provisions of the Act, as they come under the purview of the Education Act 1996. However, what needs to be noted and monitored by the authorities is that many kindergartens offer daycare services after noon and, as such, will then be under the purview of the Childcare Act.
Under the Act, the minimum standard of care to be provided includes the number of children that are under a caregiver at any one time.
There must be one supervisor, sufficient childcare providers, a cook and other workers at the centre. A minimum of one childcare provider for every five children between 0 and 3, and one for every 10 children between 3 and 4 is the stipulation.
The childcare providers shall be at least 18 and have attended the Basic Childcare Course accredited by the Welfare Department (The minimum duration of the course is 17 working days and the fee imposed is RM480).
Health and safety requirements are also important at a childcare centre. There should be an evacuation exit in case of a fire. This is, perhaps, why many daycare centres and kindergartens, which double as childcare centres, operate from a corner house in a residential area.
However, not all of them have the exit stairway (outside) from the first floor and this is an offence. This shows that such centres may not be registered.
Fire drills are to be conducted once every three months. All children shall be inspected every day upon arrival at the centre and if any of them are ill, they must be removed from the other children and kept in a separate room.
If the child is unwell during the day, the child’s parents have to be informed immediately. The minimum floor area for every child is 3.5 square metres and there has to be one toilet for every 10 children.
Parents cannot take legal action against illegal daycare centre operators should there be any accident or death due to negligence.
This is because they have failed to check if the operators have licences to operate the centres or if the operators have received training.
The local authorities should act responsibly to shut down illegal daycare centres to ensure that parents are not fooled into sending their children there.
The registration for such centres is a cumbersome and lengthy process. But, it has to be done.
For a daycare centre to be approved by an area’s local council, the operators need approval from the Welfare Department, and the centre’s building plan and renovation plan require approval from the Fire and Rescue Department.
The authorities should be more vigilant, as more and more reports of child abuse occurring at daycare centres are surfacing. The mushrooming of such centres in housing estates, especially residential areas, should be halted.
All daycare centres should operate from shophouses and business premises, as this makes it easy for checks to be carried out by the authorities.
It is not an impossible task, but one which calls for enforcement, which is vital when children and vulnerable persons are at the core of the issue.