PETALING JAYA: The government should set a “whitelisting period” to encourage illegal nurseries to register and obtain licences, a consumer group said.

Consumer Choice Centre’s Malaysian country associate Tarmizi Anuwar said the government needs to increase monitoring and enforcement to identify unregistered care centres and untrained caregivers.

“It is very important that nursery workers (and) teachers are trained in early childhood education. Untrained workers or teachers may endanger the children’s safety and not be able to provide effective education,” he told FMT.

On Oct 10, a two-month-old baby died at a childcare centre in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya. The centre was not registered with the social welfare department.

“The government needs to set up a nursery whitelisting period and give entrepreneurs the opportunity to register and comply with the guidelines created under the Child Care Centre Act 1984,” he said.

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