All govt agencies to set up Child Nursery at the work place next year

KUALA LUMPUR: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is targeting that all government agencies set up a Child Nursery (Taska) at their respective work places in January 2019 involving shift workers.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the ministry would also collaborate with the Education Ministry so that facilities for teachers serving at such schools could be provided.

Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, said the government had provided various incentives to encourage the establishment of child nurseries at the work place including the granting of RM180 per month for childcare fees for each child of an officer whose monthly household income did not exceed RM5,000.

“For private sector employers, tax exemption incentives could be sought from the government according to the Inland Revenue Department’s circular dated Feb 15, 1996 where tax exemption of 10 per cent for 10 years to renovate and maintain a building in order to set up the child nursery,”she said during Question Time for Ministers at the Parliament sitting yesterday.

She was replying to a question from Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang) who wanted to know the immediate measures taken by the ministry in regulating the child nurseries including those at private homes so that abuse cases such as the one that occurred to the late Adam Rayqal Mohd Sufi were not repeated.

Dr Wan Azizah said that among efforts that could be taken to enhance child safety at the nurseries were the installation of CloseCircuit Television (CCTV) which would enable parents to carry out long-distance monitoring via the smartphone application.

“A total of 4,293 child nurseries were registered throughout the country up to June this year. Thus one of the measures that could be taken was considering installation of infrastructure especially the CCTV,”she said when replying to a supplementary question from Siti Zailah on the detailed monitoring mechanism for all public and private child nurseries.

She said the government would also consider the setting up of a competency standard to be applied by child-minders incorporating the aspects of security, training and basic skills necessary for a child-minder. - Bernama