BY: SYARIFA SOFEA

The need for both parents, the father and mother, to go to work has become increasingly common and this leaves the necessity for their children to be placed in the care of child minders and so child care centres have begun to mushroom.

A growing number of these child care centres are operating without a licence or permit and there are now concerns being raised about the child care industry that needs to be addressed by the government of the day.

Without a shadow of doubt, the child care industry is a lucrative business but it needs to be supervised, monitored and regulated to ensure that there are no untoward incidents that crop up at these centres.

From time to time, the media reports of cases of abuse and neglect of children taking place at these centres and it is really anyone’s guess if this is just the tip of the iceberg and whether there are other unreported cases of neglect.

Equally important is the state of these centres, the training, skills and ability of caregivers and the kind of compensation they are being paid, all of which at present there is no real assessment and has yet to be ascertained.

More importantly is the psychological factor of a child being raised in the absence of parents who leave the children with child minders in the morning and fetch them late in the evening only to tuck them in bed which means also being denied much parental love.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher