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The problem of keeping children safe in the hands of childminders is not easy. There are 2.6 million Malay children aged 0 to 4 years old. Many young parents work to meet the needs of their families; As a result, the father and mother can both be employed and need a maternal assistant.
According to the Act respecting the Early Years Center, a "day care center" is defined as any place where four children or more than four years old are accommodated. for an additional cost. These centers must be accredited and registered with the Department of Social Welfare. The law does not cover the care of children by parents. More importantly, babysitters who take care of one to three children are exempt from registration.
Section 5 of the Act provides for four categories of day care centers: home, workplace, community and institutional child care. . A fifth category is a daycare for handicapped children. Most children are considered to have 10 children or more, except the home center (four to nine children).
In 2016, the Ministry of Women's, Family and Community Development stated that only 4,240 nurseries and 1,650 the Department of Welfare. Nobody knows the real number because most work quietly and parents need services. If we consider the 2.6 million children under four and take a very conservative approach and assumptions:
"Suppose 50% of women work (underestimation, 54% in 2016).
Suppose 50% Suppose most daycares are large (10 or more children, overestimate because most babysitters of less than 2 or 3 years old manage small centers)
would suggest that 39, there are at least 65,000 childcare centers or crèches in operation and some are not registered. Many childminders naturally take care of one to three children, thus exempted from registration.
Licensed daycares must have a good program and be supervised by the Department of Welfare to verify staff qualifications, safety, quality of care, Apart from the role of the Department of Social Welfare, the Department of Welfare. Association of Child Care Providers in Malaysia has been working hard to try to raise child care services in the country.
challenges and offer suggestions on improving the safety of children in the hands of our babysitters.
First of all, there was a call for more legislation but it may not be a major solution. Existing laws and regulations are complete, but laws are rarely of a preventive nature, they often act after the fact. A possible tightening of the Child Protection Centers Act, 1984 (revised in 2007) is to consider whether we should include the registration of child carers who take care of them. One to three children. These are often the most vulnerable and require a solution.
Secondly, it must be recognized that the Department of Social Welfare has extremely limited staff. They have a very wide field of work and can barely cope with the needs. It was acknowledged that the monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Social Welfare, even of registered childcare centers, is limited. It is necessary to significantly improve the staffing of the Department of Social Welfare to meet the many social needs of the country. As we work to increase the number, the quality of the staff also requires serious improvement. We need to invest in a lot of skilled social workers and not depend on those who have to learn on the job after leaving school.
Third, there must be a mechanism to report all unregistered daycares and daycares. While it seems logical to enforce the law and close all unregistered child care centers, it can be difficult to find thousands of them. Parents, who desperately need child care, tend to be silent. Many centers do not register due to the need to meet training requirements and standards. Perhaps we could work nationally with the Association of Approved Child Care Providers of Malaysia and the Department of Social Welfare to work toward the gradual improvement of these unregistered centers. In other words, provide an opportunity to meet the requirements over time and not all at the same time. In addition, provide support for training (reduce the cost of training).
Finally, the best maternal assistant is a parent. Our young parents are both working to make ends meet in the face of the rising cost of living. Employers must invest their profits in employees and not just in major shareholders. Many industrialized countries pay better wages to allow only one parent to work. Others offer longer periods of paid support to parents so that they can stay away from work even up to two years.
As a nation, we must invest in our young families and their children. The growth and success of our nation can not be measured by its mere financial success, but also by the well-being of its people
Datuk Dr. Amar-Singh
Senior Pediatrician Consultant
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