SINGAPORE – The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) said it will strengthen its investigation protocol and review its regulations for pre-school operators, learning from recent child mismanagement cases to prevent future occurrences.

In response to questions in Parliament on Monday following the recent cases, Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling said ECDA will see if penalties imposed on operators for such cases should be enhanced, including financial penalties.

The agency will also work with the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC) and training providers to strengthen educator training, so that all educators clearly understand their duty and obligation in ensuring the safety of children in their care.

Training materials will describe more explicitly what are inappropriate and prohibited methods of child management, so that educators can better call out mismanagement practices in their pre-schools, Ms Sun added.

“In our continuous efforts to ensure the safety of our children and support their growth and development in a positive and nurturing environment, we will learn from recent incidents to strengthen our system of preventing child mismanagement cases,” she said.

The current regulatory framework, which will be enhanced, came into effect in 2019.

Ms Sun said that when determining appropriate penalties, ECDA takes into account all the facts of the case and imposes a penalty that is proportionate to the circumstances.

For errant educators, ECDA can issue warnings or stern reminders, and require them to go for retraining. These steps were taken against some educators who were involved in the recent child mismanagement cases in Kinderland centres.

In serious child mismanagement cases, the agency can also bar educators from working in the pre-school sector.

Ms Sun said operators that fail to ensure their centres’ and staff’s compliance with regulations can face financial penalties, or have their licences cut short or revoked.

The operator of one Kinderland centre was fined $5,000, the maximum permitted under the law, and had its licence tenure reduced to six months.

Ms Sun said: “The shortened licence will impact the centre’s operations, as it will influence parents’ decision to enrol their children at the centre in the coming year.”

She added: “This is a very important, serious penalty because it can affect the impressions that parents have towards the pre-school. Do they still want to continue sending their children to a pre-school whereby the licence tenure is only six months?”

Having gained experience applying the regulatory framework, ECDA intends to strengthen it and review provisions to see if penalties on operators should be enhanced, and if financial penalties should be raised, she said.

The agency announced in August that the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in all pre-schools will be mandatory from July 2024.

Ms Sun said this decision did not come lightly and was not a reaction to the recent incidents.

Progress Singapore Party Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa asked if this deadline could be brought forward.

Ms Sun said that while the agency recognises that some parents may be worried and want the CCTV cameras installed earlier, it is important to give pre-schools the time needed to procure and install the cameras correctly in appropriate venues to protect the privacy of children and staff.

There are about 10 cases of child mismanagement incidents for every 100,000 enrolled children each year, and this figure has remained low and stable over recent years, she said.

One case came to public attention in August after videos were circulated of a teacher at a Kinderland pre-school forcing children to drink water and hitting a child on the buttocks with a book.

Former pre-school teacher Lin Min, 33 was charged in court on Aug 30 with ill-treating a child.

Ms Sun said: “Each case is still one too many, and when an incident of child mismanagement happens, ECDA takes it seriously and will take appropriate action.”

Some MPs posed questions on the use of personal mobile devices by staff in relation to collecting evidence of wrongdoing.

Kinderland had previously said in a Facebook post on Aug 30 that staff are barred from using personal devices during teaching hours to prevent the misuse of photos and videos of children.

The statement sparked criticism from the public, as the alleged child abuse case came to light through a secretly filmed video by a former teacher.

Ms Sun emphasised that any operator’s policy on the use of personal mobile devices at work should not hinder staff from reporting any wrongdoing in their centres.

“If so, this is a clear breach of the operator’s duty to implement an effective reporting mechanism and ECDA will take action against the operator.”

The Early Childhood Development Centres’ Code of Practice requires all operators to implement a policy on internal reporting of wrongdoing, and the agency must be notified within 24 hours if there is an incident involving the health and safety or mismanagement of a child.

Ms Sun said ECDA will continue to reinforce awareness of reporting obligations, such as getting centres to clarify with staff on what they need to do if they witness any wrongdoing, and how to use various reporting channels.

“The incidents at Kinderland should not have happened and are not representative of the vast majority of educators, who work tirelessly to care for our children and provide them with a safe space to learn and play,” she added.