Its minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said it would also collaborate with the education ministry to provide facilities for teachers.
Wan Azizah, who is also the deputy prime minister, said the government had provided various initiatives to encourage the establishment of child nurseries at the work place.
These include the granting of RM180 per month for childcare fees for each child of an officer whose monthly household income is less than RM5,000.
“For private sector employers, tax exemption incentives can be sought from the government according to the Inland Revenue Department’s circular dated Feb 15, 1996 where tax exemption of 10% for 10 years was given to renovate and maintain a building in order to set up child nurseries,” she said during the ministers’ question time at the Dewan Rakyat today.
She was replying to Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang) who wanted to know the measures taken by the ministry in regulating child nurseries including those at private homes so that abuse cases such as the one involving five-month-old Adam Rayqal Mohd Sufi would not be repeated.
Wan Azizah said efforts to enhance child safety at nurseries included the installation of CCTV cameras which would enable parents to carry out long-distance monitoring via smartphone applications.
“A total of 4,293 child nurseries were registered throughout the country until June this year,” she added 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 setting up a competency standard to be applied to childminders by incorporating the necessary aspects of security, training and basic skills.