A journal-standard assignment for the subject 'Law and Public Policy', Master of Public Policy (mixed mode), University Malaya

1. University Malaya
PROBLEMS AND
CHALLENGES FACED
BY MALAYSIAN
CHILDCARE SECTOR
LAW & PUBLIC POLICY JOURNAL
Mohd Hasim Ujang
First written on 21st May 2013

2. 1
POLICY PAPER ON THE PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACED BY
CHILDCARE SECTOR IN MALAYSIA
Program : Master of Public Policy, International Centre for
Public Policy and Management (INPUMA), University
Of Malaya Kuala Lumpur
Course Title : Law and Public Policy
Course Code : ZIGP 6111
Name : Mohd Hasim Ujang
Student ID : ZGA110011
Prepared For : Dr. Mohana Sunthari Subramaniam (Supervisor)
Abstract
This policy paper was prepared to fulfil the requirement under the above stated
course and subject. This study intended to explore real and possible challenges that
are faced by childcare sector in Malaysia while simultaneously attempts to find out
whether the country in general has sound policies with rigorous implementations to
address those challenges. For this purpose, literature review is the main research
methodology. However some of the research questions are answered through
analysis on the results of a pre-selected survey conducted in related government
agencies.
The research findings seem to point to the conclusion that childcare sector in
Malaysia still faces considerable social and bureaucratic challenges. Thus, a number
of improvements in aspects of policy and authorities’ implementations have been
suggested to address these challenges.

3. 2
Introduction
The notion ‘childcare sector’ in Malaysia basically refers to the social sector whose
core business is to provide substitute care for children during parents’ temporary
absence. It encompasses both the formal and informal institution that caters for such
purpose. Formal institutions consist of child care centres and playschools that are
operated mainly by commercial operators, although a number of government
agencies do provide such amenity at organizational or community level. Whereas the
informal institution mainly refers to the independent child care givers who operate at
personal capacity from their own houses. This study focuses on child care services
that are provided by commercial operators. In this respect, the legal definition of
commercial child care service in Malaysia is legally defined under Section 2 of the
Child Care Centre Act 1984 as ‘any premises at which four or more children
under the age of four years from more than one household are received to be
looked after for reward’.
The problems and challenges pertaining childcare sector in Malaysia are not
standalone issues. They interrelate closely with various social and economic issues;
one of those is the emancipation of women in Malaysian history and society. Dr.
Zaleha Kamaruddin (2007)1
noted that the emancipation of women in Malaysia,
especially the Malay community has begun long before Malaysia underwent rapid
modernization and urbanization.
1) Prof. Zaleha Kamaruddin, Women Emancipation in the 21st Century (page 10). Source:
http://khairaummah.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=193 published in 28
th
March
2007, retrieved on 3rd
April 2012.

4. 3
According to her paper, many married women in traditional Malay Society helped
their husbands to earn household income either by participating directly in the
agricultural sector, or by conducting peripheral economic activities such as doing
small businesses, sewing/embroidery, handicraft, operating food stalls or caring for
children of their neighbours and acquaintances. Besides these activities, traditional
Malay Muslim parents often had to abandon their children during annual pilgrimage
season to Mecca, which used to take months before the introduction of aircraft
services. (Currently, the standard period taken for any Malaysian muslim to do
annual pilgrimage is about 40 to 50 days). The study also noted that similar patterns
were observed among other races such as Chinese, Indians and natives of East
Malaysia, with the exception of the annual pilgrimage.
Due to these commitments, many married women with children depended on
substitute parental institutions which mainly consisted of close relatives and
neighbours to care for their children during their temporary absence. Hence, the
need for parental substitutes for many households in Malaysia has been essential
long before the establishment of modern day care centres.
In line with rapid modernization, the traditional childcare sector in Malaysia has
evolved from small and informal business to one of the primary commercial activities
with national importance. Laws, regulations and policies were produced and
administrative bodies were created to control this newfound commerce. This is a
very critical development to ensure that the child care business never compromise
on quality over profit which would eventually jeopardize the well being of their
customers’ children.

5. 4
Moreover, adherence to international laws and declarations is also critical to ensure
that Malaysian laws governing child care business are in line with international
standards. Thus, this paper also seeks to identify what are the laws, regulations and
policies that govern or implicate pre-school child care business in Malaysia.
Statement of Problem2
Despite earlier laws and policies to promote and facilitate the growth of childcare
sector, Malaysian parents generally still find it difficult to seek professional and
reliable childcare service at their workplace or within their community. Due to various
social and financial factors as well as their demand-driven nature of business,
professional childcare services are mainly accessible only to parents within the
category of middle to high income household.
The vast majority of parents with blue collar jobs who falls under lower income group
still find it practically impossible to provide their children with professional childcare
service. Due to financial considerations, such parents often opted to send their
children to independent caregivers who charge much lower rates than any registered
child care centre3
. Such trend, although not very convincing in terms of security and
accountability, nevertheless is very hard to curb because balancing between
children’s welfare and security on one hand and parents’ persistent need to make a
living on the other hand, is often very difficult.
2) Problems affecting childcare sector were discussed on a few occasions in Malaysian Parliament,
notably on 23rd
September 2004, 8th
June 2010 and 23rd
March 2011. More information can be found
in the date-specific Hansards available only in Malay version.
3) BERNAMA: Childcare Centre, Caregiver or Maid? – Parents’ Dilemma published in June 2006 at
http://kpdnkk.bernama.com/newsBm.php?id=202480&, retrieved on 29th
April 2012.

6. 5
Furthermore, the vast majority of Malaysian employers are reluctant to provide
childcare service within their employees’ workplaces4
and this situation compounds
the problem further. This is due to the fact that many employers view the provision of
childcare service for their employees within working premises as a financial burden
and a cumbersome social obligation that must be avoided wherever possible. An
estimated minimum sum of RM50,000 is needed to kick start a childcare service
operation plus estimated monthly cost of RM10,000, as of June 20063
.
Moreover, there is a stringent set of bureaucratic procedures that must be followed
by prospective childcare operators, and these set of procedures seen as
unnecessarily onerous. For instance, apart from complying with requirements from
local authorities, Health Department and Fire and Safety Department, private
childcare operator must secure an operating permit from Ministry of Education
(Education Act 1961) which must be renewed annually5
. Besides, the hazardous
working condition in industrial and manufacturing sectors makes it very difficult for
the Government to make it mandatory for all employees to provide childcare facilities
within their employees working premises. In view of these issues, the Government
has yet to come out with a holistic policy or approach to ensure quality childcare
services are available to all parents regardless of income and vocation. Thus, this
paper seeks to propose improvisation in the aspects of policy and suggestions on
implementation instruments to address these situations.
4) Ibid
5) Ibid

7. 6
Research Questions
In order to explore problems and challenges related to childcare sector, the following
research questions have been formulated:
1. What are the most pertinent issues that render childcare services so prohibitive
and less desirable to most Malaysian parents?
2. What are the possible bureaucratic and policy challenges that hamper the
growth of childcare services in Malaysia?
3. What are the current policies carried out and incentives offered by the
Government to address problems and challenges in childcare sector?
4. Does the Government in any extent referred to international laws/declarations or
benchmarked with international best-practices to come out with sound laws and
policies that would facilitate the healthy growth of domestic childcare sector?
5. What are the examples of foreign government policies and/or international best
practices that Malaysia could emulate in order to uplift the standard of domestic
childcare sector?
Research Methodology
This study was carried out over a period of 6 weeks. In order to infer answers to the
Research Questions, this study relied on collections of varies literatures as well as
academic and journalistic materials that were available within the specified time

8. 7
frame. In addition, careful examination on selected Malaysian Parliament’s hansards
was carried out to identify related issues and answers to the Research Questions.
The literatures, journalistic materials and parliament’s hansard that were perused
throughout this study are listed under footnotes in relevant pages.
Furthermore, a short survey involving selected respondents was also carried out
specifically to answer the Research Question number 4. The respondents mainly
consisted of professional legal practitioners and legal advisers who were attached in
three major divisions in the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) of Malaysia:
 The International Affairs Division (IAD AGC)
 The Drafting Division (DD AGC)
 The Law Revision and Law Reform Division (LR2 AGC)
A sample of interview questionnaire used is annexed herewith under the Appendix
Section.
Significance of Research
1. This research facilitates a critical understanding about the importance of
continuous social and administrative reform for the benefit of society by using
childcare sector as a case study.
2. This research allows examination and understanding the interrelation between
law and public policy that affects the various facets of Malaysian society’s life, in
this case the life of working parents with children under 4 years old.

9. 8
3. This research enables a good look at the relationship between legislative
process and policy formulation as well as the parameters that are normally taken
into consideration in both processes.
4. This research enables critical analysis on current issues and consequently
allows for further recommendations and suggestions for overall improvement in
the current administration and regulation of childcare sector in Malaysia.
Limitations of Research
1. The 6 weeks time frame posed a severe limitation to the collection and analysis
of materials that was necessary to come out with the most accurate answers to
the Research Questions.
2. There was a lack of policy oriented studies encountered during data collection
process. Most studies encountered under childcare sector were mainly specialist
and technical in nature in the sense that they focused very much on pedagogy,
classroom techniques as well as psychoanalytical and cognitive aspects of early
education and childcare. This outcome can be largely attributed to the limited
time frame as mentioned in the first limitation.
3. The parliament’s hansards that are only date-specific but not categorized under
different and specific issues posed a significant challenge during the study. The
hansards are in the order of 150 pages and out of all, usually less than 10 pages
of the recorded parliamentary debates actually focused on issues that are

10. 9
related to this study. Due to this nature, the potential to discover more
parliamentary evidences and legislative details to support this study has been
inhibited considerably. In this respect, the parliament’s hansards are the most
important source of data and inferences because they are the most authoritative
documents that explain the issues, reasons and justifications behind every laws
and policies that the Government has embarked upon. A substantial portion of
journalistic literatures perused in this study had actually used parliamentary
reports and statements to support their articles/editorials.
Domestic Laws, Domestic Policies, International Laws and International
Instruments Relating To Child Care Sector
In Malaysian context, there are three (3) domestic laws and two (2) national policies
that serve to guide and regulate child care sector. They are listed and explained as
follows:
Child Care Centre Act 1984 (Act 308)
• This law consists of six (6) Parts and 24 Sections. It regulates all child care
centres that care for children below 4 years old, except those centres that are
registered under Education Act 1996 (Act 550) and Care Centre Act 1993 (Act
506).
• The Act stipulates matters pertaining to registration, de-registration, closure,
inspection of private child care centres registered hereunder.

11. 10
• Penalties for offences and breaches are also stipulated. Under this act,
operators can be fined up to RM2000.00 or jailed not more than 1 year for each
offence committed.
• Section 23 of Act 308 also empowers the appointed Minister (currently Minister
of Women, Family and Community Development) to establish rules and
procedures to regulate all matters relating to the establishment and running of
child care centres in line with the stated Act.
Care Centre Act 1993 (Act 506)
• This law regulates care centres for children regardless of age, juveniles,
disabled persons and senior citizens.
• It stipulates matters pertaining to registration, de-registration, closure, inspection
of operating premises except for child care centre registered under Act 308 and
private schools registered under Act 550.
• The Act also stipulates penalties up to RM10,000.00 or jail term not more than 2
years for each offence committed.
• The Act also specified Care Giver-To-Recipients (CTR) ratio according to age
as follows:
AGE GROUP & PHYSICAL CONDITION PRESCRIBED CTR RATIO
1. Children <4 years old 1:5
2. Children between 4 – 10 years old 1:18
3. Children/Juveniles aged 10 years and above 1:18

12. 11
4. Disabled persons 1:10
5. Critically disabled (bed-ridden) 1:4
6. Senior Citizens 1:18
7. Senior Citizens with sickness 1:14
Education Act 1996 (Act 550)
• This law regulates many types of schools including child care facilities that
provide care and pre-school education for children beyond 4 years old.
• Such care centre are sometimes referred to as ‘transit house’ where children
aged 4 years and above underwent formal education from morning until
afternoon and cared for after that until they are picked up by their parents past
office hours.
• This Act mainly regulates the pre-school curriculum and the content of children’s
development activities conducted by such child care premises.
• Ministry of Education (MOE) issues annual permit for regulatory purposes. The
need to renew the permit annually is considered to be burdensome by operators
who do business under this category of care centre.
National Children Policy, National Children Protection Policy and National
Policy for Early Childhood Education and Care
• These three national policies seek to protect basic rights of children, to ensure
their safety and guarantee their healthy development. These policies put

13. 12
these accountabilities on whoever and whatever institution that are involved in
child care.
• These policies also function as blueprints and general guide for administrative
bodies to carry out duties related to child care and education sector. In doing
so, the government mainly refer to the International Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) as primary guide in content and spirit.
Lastly, there is one international law that of direct relevancy to the governance and
regulation of child care sector in Malaysia, which is the International Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
• The CRC contains 54 articles and many of them are applicable for any institution
or independent bodies who seek to provide child care services.
• In essence, CRC stipulates that any child enjoys the same human rights as adult
human being, with the exception of guardianship on another child.
• CRC was introduced through UN in 1989 and subsequently ratified by Malaysia
on 17th
February 1995.
• However, Malaysia’ ratification was incomplete due to reservations with respect
to articles 2,7,14,28 (paragraph 1a) and 37.
• Examples of CRC articles that are relevant to child care sector in Malaysia are
Article 3, Article 18 and Article 19 which are listed hereto:

14. 13
Article 3
Section 1: In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private
social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative
bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
Section 3: States Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities
responsible for the care or protection of children shall conform with the
standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of
safety, health, in the number and suitability of their staff, as well as competent
supervision.
Article 18
Section 3: State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that
children of working parents have the right to benefit from child-care services
and facilities for which they are eligible.
Article 19
Section 1: State Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social
and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental
violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation
including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian or any other
person who has the care of the child.

15. 14
Research Findings
After carrying out all literature reviews and observing the responses obtained from
the short survey, the findings of this research is presented hereto in the form of
answers to each Research Question. To ease discussion, Research Questions 1
and 2 are answered henceforth simultaneously.
Research Question 1: What are the most pertinent issues that render childcare
services so prohibitive and less desirable to most Malaysian parents?
Research Question 2: What are the possible bureaucratic and policy challenges that
hamper the growth of childcare services in Malaysia?
The most pertinent issues that render childcare services so prohibitive and less
desirable to most Malaysian parents can be summarized in three points:
1. High operating cost to provide a competent and reliable child care service as
compared to its potential profitability.
2. Stringent bureaucracy imposed upon the setting up, registration and
administration of a child care service which is very taxing both technically and
financially.
3. Low supply of skilled caregiver to meet high demand, resulting in child care
centres to resort to hiring workforce with inferior passion and child care skills
which further compromises the overall child care quality of service.

16. 15
1. High operating cost of child care service compared to potential
profitability
Although operators of child care service have a social and legal obligation to provide
good quality service, this cannot be done without them making a decent profit from
their business. No business can survive without making decent returns to maintain
good standard of service. Whatever mechanism or situation that are engineered by
the authority and society as a whole, it must be conducive enough for this to happen.
In the case of child care service, it is estimated that at least RM50,0003
is needed to
kick-start an average child care centre while monthly operating cost is estimated at
RM10,0003
. However, the average monthly income of a child care centre in
Malaysia is estimated between RM3000 to RM7000 only, depending on fees and
subscriptions. An average child care centre usually takes care of 25 to 40 children
who mainly consist of infants aged 3 to 18 months, toddlers aged 18 to 47 months
and children aged 4 to 6 years old. Fees taken can range anywhere between RM150
to RM350 per child per month (an example of child care charges is shown in
Appendix 2).
However some private unsubsidized child care centre could charge up to RM600 per
child per month, which is very rare because that amount is considered very
expensive for many Malaysian middle income households who have more than one
child. The table below illustrates an example of the estimated running cost of a child
care centre that cares for 25 infants and toddlers below 4 years old with monthly
charges of RM300 per child per month. It is also assumed that the particular centre
employs 2 professionally trained child care worker with respectable (about 5 years

17. 16
of) working experience plus 3 child care assistant without professional training but
also having equally decent experience.
COST ELEMENTS FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS (RM)
Monthly Rental 2500.00
Salaries for 2 graduate/professionally trained care
givers = 2500 X 2
5000.00
Salaries for 3 non-graduate/low skilled care givers =
1200 X 3
3600.00
Utilities and provisions (estimated to be RM200 per
child) = 200 X 25
5000.00
ESTIMATED TOTAL COST 16100.00
ESTIMATED REVENUES RM
Average monthly revenue from caring 25 infants and
toddlers: 25 X 300
7500.00
*Subsidies and Grants (RM180 per child provided by
Social Welfare Dept) = 180 X 25
4500.00
ESTIMATED MONTHLY INCOME -4100.00
From the example shown above, it is clear that the particular child care centre
cannot sustain its business without adequate government’s subsidies and grants.
Salaries alone already contribute a huge commitment to the operating cost of any
child care centre. Below is a summary of reasons that pushed up the operating cost
of an average child care business in Malaysia to such an extent that renders
profitability to be very difficult to achieve without cutting corners:

18. 17
 Malaysia is a developing economy where salary growth does not commensurate
with the rising cost of living, especially in urban areas. This is especially true for
fresh graduates, fresh school leavers and young people who have just started to
have their own families. For example, according to the data from Department of
Statistics (shown below), the average monthly spending among Malaysian
households for 2009/2010 is RM2190.00, compared to RM1,161.00 at 15 to 17
years earlier. This signifies a cumulative inflation of 88.6%.
 The highest increase was recorded for communication expenditure, with total
increase of 416%, followed by miscellaneous goods and services (134.5%),
housing, water and electricity (102%), transport (94.6%), restaurants and hotels
(64.9%) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (60.9%). All of these figures
(including the average overall inflation of 88.6%) are above 60%. Whereas the
average increase in salaries over the same period does not come up to this
figure. For example, in 1993/1994 an average production operator in a factory
earned about RM600 in monthly salary whereas a graduate teacher earned about
RM1600. Today, the same occupations offered about RM800 and RM2500
respectively, which is way below 88 percent increase.
 The increase in the cost of housing (which indicates general cost of property
purchasing and renting), food, fuel, communication, transport, and overall goods
and services greatly amplifies the cost of living and the cost of doing business
in Malaysia. Gone are the days when workers and business communities can
enjoy low cost of living/doing business with decent profitability. This is especially
true amongst the lower to middle income group and the small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) who finds it increasingly tough to make ends meet.

19. 18

20. 19
Sadly, such is the prevailing scenario in the Malaysian child care industry that drives
away prospective entrepreneurs and child care professionals from setting up a
decent business here. Any child care centre that wants to survive without permanent
dependence on any form of government assistance could only do so either by paying
extremely low salaries to their employees or by radically increasing the number of
child intake to maximize profit to the extent that far exceed the obligated number of
children-to-care giver ratio.
Charging higher fees for parents is not an option because Malaysia is still unable to
move away from the lower middle income trap that curtails the purchasing power of
the majority population6
. Moreover, that is not even taking into account the financial
constraints that are inhibiting child care sector from offering the best curriculum and
the best training equipment to stimulate the overall growth of children.
2. Stringent bureaucracy imposed upon the child care sector which is very
taxing
To set up a child care service centre, a prospective operator must deal with and fulfil
all requirements set out by at least 4 to 6 agencies which are:
• Social Welfare Department (JKM)
• Local Authority/Municipal
• Health Department
• Fire and Safety Department
• Education Department (if the centre plans to provide care for children >4 yrs)
• Malaysian Companies’ Commission (SSM), if the company is new
6) Dr. Fong Chan Onn via Malaysian Economic Forum (MEF), ‘Caught in middle income trap’,
Sunday Star, 7th
February 2010. Source:
http://www.mef.org.my/library/MC_MEFinthenews/SunStar100207a.pdf retrieved on 20th
April 2012.

21. 20
Each of these agencies use specific forms, has different locations, stipulate specific
conditions and require specific processing fees. Because of the cumbersome
process, an application to register a childcare centre could take as long as 4 years to
be approved7
. Some of the permits/licenses are recurring and must be renewed
annually. Thus, with such a complicated bureaucracy, there is little wonder that
authorized child care centres are not flourishing at a pace that is fast enough to cope
with the ever increasing demand.
3. Low supply of skilled caregiver to meet high demand
Within Malaysian society, there is a prevailing perception that child care is not
regarded as an attractive vocation. This perception caused many youths and job
seekers to shun any job or training opportunities relating to this field. To them, child
minding is regarded as a housewife’s or a nanny’s affair, not a professional vocation.
This observation can be supported by referring to the huge dependency on foreign
maids to serve as house keeper and child minder among many Malaysian
households8, 9, 10
. The local youths are simply not interested anymore to take up such
jobs, forcing many families to shift to foreign maids’ services as the alternative.
7) Source: ‘Childcare centre and preschool license may be obtained in three months, says Fatimah’, The
Star, 28th
January 2012.
8) ‘Maid Shortage Problem Getting Worse’, BERNAMA, 26th
January 2011. Source:
http://whiteglove.com.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=47 retrieved
on 5th
April 2012.
9) ‘35,000 families badly hit by shortage of maids’, The Star, 10th
January 2011. Source:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2011/1/10/nation/7765792 retrieved on 17th
April 2012.
10) ‘Maids from Myanmar might be the next option’, MalaysiaToday.com, 30th
March 2012. Source:
http://malaysiatoday.com/2012/03/maids-from-myanmar-might-be-the-next-option/ retrieved on 17th
May 2012.

22. 21
Thus, working as a child care-giver has become a choice of last resort for some de-
motivated and demoralized job seekers who failed to secure any other ‘prestigious’
jobs. Consequently, very few institutions offered academic and vocational training in
the field of child care. Understandably, many child care employees in child care
centres are untrained and low skilled which in turn brought about issues of child care
quality in Malaysia.
Further repercussions from problems that are faced by child care sector in
Malaysia
Because of low profitability attributed to high cost of living and high cost of doing
business, many operators are unable to abide to the prescribed guidelines that are
meant to ensure professional and reliable child care services. This situation forced
many child care operators to cut corners by embarking upon profit maximization
exercises such as:
• Hiring care givers who are willing to receive very low salaries but whose aptitude
and enthusiasm are questionable.
• Exceeding the prescribed children-to-care giver ratio by cramping in as many
children as possible into their shabby premises.
Some child care centres have been observed to take care of more than 30 children
below 4 years old when they have only two staffs to care for such a high number of
children. The overwhelming care giver-to-children ratio has dangerously reduced the
focus of care givers to each child who are mainly infants and toddlers. Thus, the

23. 22
dramatic drop in service quality is already a foregone conclusion. Furthermore, some
child care operators do not bother at all to register their business with the authorities
for reasons associated with bureaucratic complications as elaborated earlier.
Some operators also do not allow parents to enter their premises for unfounded
reasons while many actually do not comply with the nationally prescribed child care
curriculum. In addition, infants and toddlers in many care centres are simply kept
indoor without much stimulating activities that are critical for their mental and
psychomotor development. In other words, these premises are just like shabby dens
devoid of cognitive stimuli and not conducive for healthy growth of a child.
Compounding these problems, enforcement by authorities to address the situation is
sorely lacking.
Nevertheless, child care operators are not the only ones who cut corners to serve
their own interests (albeit with legitimate reasons to do so). To save cost, parents
also cut corners by sending their children to independent care-givers who take much
lower charges compared to any registered care centre. They are independent care
givers who operate at personal capacity (non-business entity) and they are
colloquially known as ‘home-based child care service’. This is not legally wrong,
provided that the care-giver does not take in more than 3 children from different
households.
However, such informal child care is very risky because independent care-givers are
not clearly bound by any legal instruments. A lot of mishaps involving babies occur in
such setting11
, but in all cases parents are not able to seek worthwhile recourse
11) Sample of headlines about mishaps involving babies and toddlers are annexed in Appendix 3

24. 23
because there is no specific law to charge independent care givers who are found to
be neglectful.
There is also a lack of due diligence amongst many parents who are not careful in
selecting the best care providers for their children. Many parents still send their
children to care centres that are either unregistered or do not abide to the best
practices in child care. Due to low standard of care offered in many child care
centres and home-based services, deaths and injuries involving infants and toddlers
has become common news headlines. Among the most common causes of deaths
and other forms of sickness and injuries occurring in child care facilities are:
• Bottled milk suffocation
• Concussion, or other type of head injuries sometimes followed by a state of
comma or death after a baby fell from higher places
• Pillow suffocation
• Food poisoning (baby vomits non-stop or contracted diarrhea after being taken
back from daycare facility)
Research Question 3: What are the current policies carried out and incentives
offered by the Government to address problems and challenges in childcare sector?
Despite all the problems that have been discussed, it is incorrect to infer that the
government did not introduce any measures to counter problematic issues plaguing
the Malaysian child care industry. The government has introduced tax breaks
under Section 34 of Income Tax Act to encourage employers to provide child care
facilities for their employees12
. Furthermore, government provides Industrial
12) Malaysian Parliament’s Hansard (House of Representatives) dated 23rd
September 2004,
page 11. Source: http://www.parlimen.gov.my/files/hindex/pdf/DR-23092004.pdf retrieved on
25th
April 2012.

25. 24
Building Allowance for employers who need to purchase any type of property for
the purpose of providing child care centre.
The sum of the allowance is up to 10 percent of the expenses incurred in setting up
the child care centre. However, as with many other type of government’s specific
incentives, it is given as per application basis, which means that the accompanying
bureaucratic and administrative complexity pose a hindrance for any prospective
claimant. Besides these incentives, the government also provides financial grants
and subsidies as follows13
:
1. RM55,000.00 incentive per launching grant is provided for Social Welfare
Department to establish a ‘community based child care centre’ (Taska Komuniti
or TASKOM) at identified locations.
2. Grants up to RM200,000.00 for Public Agencies to set up childcare centres for
their staffs.
3. Providing RM180 childcare fee subsidy for parents earning below RM3000.00
per month in government agencies, below RM2000.00 per month in urban areas
below RM1200.00 per month in rural areas.
4. Establishing Pusat Anak Permata Negara (PERMATA)14
, roughly translated
‘National Centre for Prized Children’. These are heavily subsidized child care
centres whose aim is to cater the need for working parents under low income
category who could not afford to sustain child care expenses on their own.
Currently, there are 52 PERMATA establishments throughout the country.

26. 25
In addition to incentives for parents and child care operators, the government also
recently announced the upcoming Social Worker Act which among others, seeks to
gazette the vocation of child minding as a professional job. The bill for the act was
scheduled to be tabled and approved by year 2011. However until now that has not
materialized yet. There are also policy instruments that serve as a guide to enhance
overall child care sector in Malaysia such as:
1. Best Business Practice Circular (BBPC) Vol. 1/2010 issued by Companies
Commission of Malaysia (full text downloadable at
http://www.ssm.com.my/sites/default/files/cr_agenda/SSM%20Unicef%20FA.pdf);
2. National Policy for Early Childhood Education and Care (full text downloadable at
http://199.91.153.175/3nsh0gq9dtug/5pp8977jj3evvwv/Dasar+Asuhan+dan+Didik
an+Awal+Kanak-Kanak+Kebangsaan.pdf); and
3. PERMATA booklet.
However as with other government policies and guidelines, it is the implementation
part that produces the desirable impact without which, such policies would just
remain as a pleasant collection of literatures. Another policy that was recently
announced was the minimum wage policy for private sector, including the child care
13) Malaysian Parliament’s Hansard (House of Representatives) dated 8th
June 2010 page 9 plus
another dated 23rd
March 2011 page 57. Sources:
http://www.parlimen.gov.my/files/hindex/pdf/DR-08062010.pdf and
http://www.parlimen.gov.my/files/hindex/pdf/DR-23032011.pdf both retrieved on 25th
April
2012.
14) PERMATA Booklet, page 4 – 20. Source:
http://205.196.120.142/esjwsdiccuxg/6o44fas0mn14rjd/PERMATA.pdf Retrieved on 13th May
2012

27. 26
industry. Under this policy, the minimum wage for all private workers regardless of
vocation was fixed at RM900 per month for Peninsular Malaysia and RM800 per
month for Malaysian Borneo Region that consists of Sabah and Sarawak15
.
However, whether this policy will enhance the overall situation in child care industry
remains to be seen.
Research Question 4: Does the Government in any extent referred to international
laws/declarations or benchmarked with international best-practices to come out with
sound laws and policies that would facilitate the healthy growth of domestic childcare
sector?
Both the literature review and short survey that were conducted during this study
revealed that the Malaysian Government did in fact refer to the international law and
institution, specifically the CRC and UNICEF to ensure domestic legislations are in
line with international principles. For example, in the survey conducted amongst legal
professionals in AG’s Chambers, at least one respondent, who was a Senior Federal
Counsel (SFC) indicated that her division (the Law Reform and Law Review Division)
referred to the CRC in the process of reviewing domestic laws relating to child care
service and education. The same respondent also indicated that her division had
appointed international advisors and consultants who are experts in CRC to assist
them in reviewing those laws.
Another example is the engagement of a professional consultant from UNICEF to
prepare the Best Business Practice Circular (BBPC) Vol. 1/2010 by Companies
Commission of Malaysia. This circular is basically a toolkit that details out the
necessary processes and procedures for entrepreneurs who want to set up a child

28. 27
care business outlet in Malaysia. Not all of the content is legally binding, however
because the toolkit is just an advisory circular designed to facilitate the dealings of
the private sector with the bureaucracy.
Research Question 5: What are the examples of foreign government policies and/or
international best practices that Malaysia could emulate in order to uplift the standard
of domestic childcare sector?
There are plenty of examples from foreign government policies or administrative
reforms that Malaysia could and should emulate. For example, in Sweden16
, the local
authorities and municipals are empowered to rigorously regulate and monitor all local
industry, including child care business. They are mandated to impose and determine
local income taxes and they also receive grants from state governments to finance
various initiatives relating to the continuous enhancement of child care sector.
Among local initiatives that were spearheaded by local authorities in Sweden are the
issuances of cash vouchers for low income parents to pay for child care fees, the
distribution of grants and subsidies to eligible child care operators and also the
continuous inspection on child care premises by competent personnel.
All these initiatives are actively pursued by authorities at local or district level,
whereas in Malaysia, all powers of taxation, distribution and governance of small,
medium and big enterprises are concentrated at federal and state level. The role of
local authorities are only confined to matters relating to petty trade that does not
include child care, assessment rates for properties and matters relating to land
applications and registrations. This situation greatly reduced the potential and
16) Swedish Ministry of Education and Science, ‘Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in
Sweden’ 27th
November 2000. Source: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/22/1917636.pdf
retrieved on 18th
May 2012.

29. 28
effectiveness of national policies and legislations whose social consequences
require much longer time to take effect in such a centralized environment.
Another good example would be the United States17
, where the state governments
are empowered as the main authority to govern child care industry in very similar
fashion to that of Swedish local authorities. Besides state governments, there are
abundant social foundations and civil society’s movements that rigorously monitor
and report government’s actions including the administration of child care sector.
Such a situation is almost non-existent in Malaysia hence, the government and
society surely have much to learn from the above quoted examples.
Suggestions and Recommendation
From the research findings, it appears that social values and priority of Malaysian
family institutions has changed much. Gone are the days when motherhood and
child minding are held with high regard among people. This can be seen by the
general lack of interest among young people to take up trainings and jobs as a
professional child care giver and the lack of government’s will to quickly gazette child
care vocation as a professional practice in its own merit.
Moreover many parents are so obsessed with career and social status and willing to
reduce their commitment on family wellbeing to pursue material success. Such
obsession has obstructed them from exercising due diligence to select the best type
of care for their infants and toddlers or to make the hard decision of forgoing part of
the household income for the sake of their children. It is not uncommon for some
women professionals to chide or sneer at full time housewives with remarks that

30. 29
connote suppression of opportunities and personal growth to describe the general
living condition of full time housewives.
Men also are partly to be blamed when many of them just wanted to marry (or
choose as a daughter in law) rich or successful career women and completely snub
any women with no career or income, no matter how good they would be as a wife
and mother. Such men no longer possess the mindset of a truly responsible
breadwinner who provides everything for the family without the need to depend on
their spouses’ income.
This is actually against the teaching of Islam as the religion of Federation in Malaysia
which stipulates that women are supposed to be maintained by men who have
responsibility over them (fathers, husbands, elder brothers or the state, for women
who no longer have capable male relatives to support them) till the day they die.
Islamic tenets insist that women are to concentrate their role in family institution and
working beyond this role to the extent of delegating her role in family to outside
parties should be made only by choice, not coercion in any form whether direct (by
shunning women who are without career nor income) or indirect (through society’s
emphasis on materialistic success and social status over the wellbeing of family
institution).
This mindset can be attributed to the over-emphasis on modernism and women
emancipation with under-emphasis on the welfare of family institution within our
community nowadays. The society seems to be more willing to accept social and
moral problems plaguing younger generation rather than accepting economic
difficulties. This formula, although seem plausible for short term gain, however is not

31. 30
sustainable for long term. This has been proven in many developing countries that
are already plagued by chronic social problems.
Consequently, nowadays, the advanced countries have realized the importance of
motherhood and child development. It is already common for highly educated
women in these countries to resign from their job or choose not to work at all for the
sake of their children. The state usually provides direct financial incentives in such
cases.
Therefore, to resolve the issues and challenges, total re-orientation of societal values
coupled with some policy and bureaucratic improvements must be introduced to
drive the necessary changes such as:
• Employment policy for women should be reviewed both in the government and
private sector. There should be more flexibility accorded for women to enter, exit
and re-enter the labour market without affecting their seniority or disrupting their
professional credentials. Currently, the government sector does not have such
flexibility and it is very difficult for anybody, not just women to re-enter the
government sector once they resign for whatever reason.
• Economic policies and initiatives should be reviewed and revamped totally to
ensure more equitable income distribution. In any case, wages should
commensurate with the level of productivity and cost of living.
• The policy engineering that the government should embark upon must focus on
reducing the costs of important consumer items to average Malaysians,
especially property and transportation costs.

32. 31
• Once the costs are reduced and wages have improved, Malaysians will have
more disposable income to spend on other necessities such as education and
child care services.
• Better still, the government should embark upon the implementation of Welfare
State which can be modelled closely from Nordic countries.
• These changes alone can dramatically improve many aspects of life in ordinary
Malaysians.
Besides economic policies, there is also a need to improve the current bureaucratic
requirements for prospective child care operators. This can be done via the following
measures:
 Making Social Welfare Department as the ‘1 Stop Centre’ for all applications
involving the setting up and maintaining child care facilities. All necessary
requirements must be arranged and facilitated by the Department without the
need to liaise directly with other technical agencies.
 Emulating the Swedish example by empowering the local authorities to
completely regulate and monitor child care business at local level. The current
model of administration is too federal-centric and too slow to respond to the
changes in society.
 The job of ‘child care-giver’ must be designated as a specially trained profession
under the proposed Social Worker Act. Currently, the Ministry of Women, Family
and Community Development together with AG’s Chambers is still finalizing the
bill whose tabling and approval from Parliament has been delayed since 2011.

33. 32
Society must also learn the lessons from developing countries who have finally
realized the folly of materialistic success devoid of true happiness that has been
traditionally derived from meaningful development centred on values of humanity.
They must realize that children must be cared for with utmost diligence and
continuous affection to ensure healthy upbringing. Stimulating play, active
handholding as well as active interaction and engagement for infants, toddlers and
children must always be exercised in all child care facilities.
In this respect, the government and society must work together to re-orient current
societal values towards a caring society with strong family values that emphasizes
sustainable happiness as opposed to the short term materialistic gains. Parents also
must undertake due diligence before placing their children under child care centres
to stop the proliferation of unregistered and unreliable child care centres. In this
respect, the Government can play a part by using the mass media as a medium to
foster parents’ awareness about the need for due diligence.
The Malaysian Association of Child Care Entrepreneurs has actively undertaken
social and advocacy works to improve the situation of child care business in
Malaysia. Government should enhance cooperation with this association and any
other social advocacy movements that are involved in community services relating to
child care. Grants should be channelled to such associations or movements to
invigorate social reforms through various advocacy works such as information
dissemination, campaigns, publications and so on.
Finally, it was also suggested that the old practice of depending on the extended
families and immediate neighbours to care for infants and toddlers should be revived

34. 33
as part of the solution to address the above challenges. However, such an
alternative has a limited viability in this cosmopolitan age where many extended
families are separated by huge geographical distances. Furthermore, not all
grandfathers and grandmothers are fit enough to care for the increasingly
hyperactive and inquisitive kids of the new generation while siblings and cousins are
equally busy with their own work or study. Besides it is common for many housing
estates to become almost entirely deserted throughout working hours every weekday
plus the low level of trust amongst neighbours and lack of community interaction is
still prevalent.
Conclusion
The Malaysian child care sector is facing considerable challenges in various aspects
that encompass financial, administration, social and policy at national level. These
challenges resulted from unbalanced economic development and uneven distribution
of wealth for society in general. The values held by society which increasingly
emphasize material success over a balanced happiness has also taken its toll on the
overall child care industry.
To rectify this situation, a holistic and inter-disciplinary solution comprises of
economic, administrative and policy reforms must be carried out by the government
with cooperation from society and relevant NGOs. Academic community could also
contribute via research and publications to provide professional inputs towards
formulating and implementing solutions that has been discussed in this study. The
bottom line is no one should compromise with the quality and reliability of child care
institutions as they are shouldering a very critical role of nurturing future generation
which is the key towards sustainable development.