BY NEVILLE TIMOTHY SANDERS, SAMUEL KARUNIA KORNO & GILVEN MIXCOLLIN
KUCHING: The time has come for the federal government to review the standard operating procedures (SOP) of daycare centres, particularly those housed in government buildings.
Deputy Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, Datuk Mohammad Razi Sitam stressed this in light of recent incidents of child abuse reported in daycare centres across Malaysia.
“Implementing additional standard operating procedures (SOPs) is imperative to ensure the safety and rights of children under the care of guardians at daycare centres.
“It is essential for the government to revise laws and regulations to establish more comprehensive or stringent measures aimed at further safeguarding children under the supervision of daycare centre guardians.”
He told the media this after attending the Drive-Thru Ramadan Kasih@RTM programme at the RTM building here on today (April 1).
“In Sarawak, there have been no recent severe cases of child abuse reported. However, this does not mean we can afford to be complacent in ensuring the safety of children in daycare centres.”
Earlier reports highlighted the implementation of additional SOPs to prevent child abuse and fatalities at daycare centres.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri disclosed that among the new SOPs is an alert system established for daycare centres located in government buildings.
“Firstly, ensure that the daycare centres are registered with us (Welfare Department).
“When we notice a rise in these cases, we enhance our SOPs. That’s why we ensure that closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are installed in these daycare centres for monitoring purposes.
“For daycare centres in government buildings, there is a ‘reminder’ system to track if a child has arrived at the daycare centre, 30 minutes if the child hasn’t arrived, that’s our SOP,” Nancy said this recently.
