PUTRAJAYA: More than 80 per cent of the caregivers for children in the country are not registered with the government.
In saying this, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said out 16,873 caregivers for children from newborn to 4 years old in the country, only 3,173 (18.81 per cent) were registered.
She said 3,173 caregivers only possessed certificates from Permata Basic Child Care Course (KAP) while the remaining 13,700 caregivers (80.19 per cent) do not have any minimum requirements.
“This indicates that the care-giving industry is faced with shortage of registered caregivers in the country. And this scarcity of lack of eligible caregivers has a great implication on the number of registered daycare centres in the country,” she added.
Dr Wan Azizah said, based on 2010 statistics from the Statistics Department, it was projected that the number children from newborn to age 4 this year will grow to a total of 2.3 million.
“With statistics, let’s say we assume that 50 per cent of 2.3 million children would need daycare centres. Therefore our country needs 38,333 centres to accommodate the children,” she added.
However, Dr Wan Azizah, who is also Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said the daycare registry with the Welfare Department showed only 4,302 centres (11.22 per cent of the total needed) existed in the country.
“This number tells us that the shortage is very clear based on the need and availability of daycare centres in the country.
“The shortage of caregivers and daycare centres will have a great implication on the guarantee of quality and safety of the children,” she added.
Dr Wan Azizah said the availability of daycare centres was important so as to prepare proper support systems for working parents.
“This would indirectly help in increasing women’s participation in the workforce from 54.7 per cent in 2017 to 59 per cent in 2020.
“The accessibility of daycare centres will enable women or mothers to remain in or return to the workforce and this will increase families’ earnings and improve the country’s economy,” she added.
Separately, she said, the ministry was in discussions on the need for improving the Child Care Centre Act 1984 and Child Care Centre Regulations 2012 based on current needs, considering the recent cases of accidents involving children in daycare centres.