They say the same rules should apply for childcare centres, as with schools moved online for the time being, their facilities are a better alternative to leaving children alone at home all day.
Kenneth William John, president of the Taska & PJKK (Pusat Jagaan Kanak-Kanak) Association Melaka, said that daycare centres cater to a different age group of children compared to taskas and kindergartens, with most of them still too young to remain at home if their parents are working.
“These children are generally between four and 12 years old who would typically go to daycare centres after school when their parents were still working away,” John, who is also the deputy president of Persatuan Pengasuh Berdaftar Malaysia, told FMT.
“That includes children who finish kindergarten in the middle of the day and need a safe place staffed by trained care providers.”
He urged the government to treat them like others in the early childhood education and care industry, and prioritise them for vaccinations so they can operate safely.
“This is not so much about money for us. Many childcare centres were not big moneymakers to begin with. It is about making sure children are safe and given a productive environment,” he said.
“If taskas and kindergartens can open for the children of frontliners, why can’t daycare centres? Before the lockdown, we had SOPs that had been approved and functioned well.”
Nazatul Aini, who runs a daycare centre in Sepang, agreed, adding that on top of not being allowed to open, they had not been given access to government aid.
“The one-off RM3,000 that was announced (in the government’s Pemulih package) isn’t available for us. It was only for the centres that were already allowed to stay open – the taskas and kindergartens,” she said.
“With us remaining closed and without any aid, we get hit twice and so, many of us are struggling because of it.”
Erlinda Yap, who runs a centre in Pahang, said she and her fellow operators simply want to be included in progressive discussions with the government and given a chance to voice their concerns.
“Parents are still calling us to ask if we’re open because they need to go to work, and we have to turn them away,” she said.
“We are responsible to the children and their parents. Working parents are under great stress because in addition to trying to make a living during the pandemic, they have nowhere to place their children.”