The Ministry of Education and Training
has required localities to re-examine the operation of private kindergartens,
which have recently been at the centre of several serious cases of child abuse.

Baby-sitters care for children at a privately owned day-care centre in Ha Noi’s Ba Dinh District. Unlicensed day-care centres will be strictly inspected by the Ministry of Education and Training to prevent child abuse. (Photo: VNS)

Unlicensed and poor-quality private kindergartens would be forced to close down
next year to assure the child safety, Deputy Minister of Education and Training
Nguyen Thi Nghia said.

Departments of education and training were required to implement regular
inspections or random checks on local private kindergartens.

Nghia
requested that the departments consider plans to construct more kindergartens
near economic and industrial zones and factories for workers who have moved from
other localities.

Initial
results are asked to report to the ministry by next February.

Several
serious cases of child abuse have been reported.

Last
Friday, four-year-old Nguyen Anh Hao, died from an electricity shock in Binh Son
Kindergarten in Binh Son Commune, Hon Dat District in the southern province of
Kien Giang. The school was forced to temporarily close down while further
investigations got under way yesterday, Dec 23.

A video
clip showing Binh Duong Province unlicensed nursery owner Tran Thi Phung
mistreating three-year-old Ho Thi Thuy Ngan while bathing her was posted to the
internet two weeks ago. Phung has been detained after being found to have
regularly pulled Ngan’s hair, stamping on her, pinning her down to the floor and
verbally abusing the child.

Last
month, four-year-old Le Quang Vinh caused serious injury to himself after he
panicked following his teacher confining him to a dumb waiter at the Hoa Lan
Private Nursery School in HCM City. Tran Thi Xuan Nu, the school teacher, might
face a three-year prison sentence of her behaviour.

Figures
from the ministry show that up to 40 per cent of private nursery schools are
unlicensed nationwide. In Ha Noi, about 23 per cent of 800 private nursery
schools and businesses are unlicensed.

Nearly
400 illegal nursery schools in the city were forced to close in 2008.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News