No Need to Extend Hours for All Child Care Centres at the Moment ...

The extra mile, an extra hoursI refer to the letter “Childcare centres – change with the times” (May 25).I share the sentiments of the writer. Being a working mother of two youngchildren, I have to struggle with my hectic work schedule and picking up mychildren before the childcare centre closes at 7pm. The centre penalized me onseveral occasions with a fine because I could only reach there after 7pm.Both my husband and I have to work. We do not have our parents around tohelp us look after the children, and my family has opted for infant care, childcareand student care centres over hiring a nanny or maid.Two years ago, after the birth of my second child, the Ministry of CommunityDevelopment, Youth and Sports sent an officer to our house to conduct a surveyon childcare service. The objective of the survey was to seek parents’ feedbackon which avenues parents would consider in the care of their children.We told the officer that we would appreciate it if the centre could extend theiroperating hours on certain days to allow parents to run errands or work beyondthe stated office hours, given how demanding jobs are nowadays. At least wecould work with minds at peace knowing that our children are well taken of.We would not mind paying a small premium for this “extra mile” service.On another note, my eldest child is seven years old and we have enrolled him ata student care centre, while my second child has been transferred from infantcare to the playgroup in the same childcare centre.The turnover of teachers at childcare centres is extremely high. I am concernedthat this will affect the children’s physical and mental development as teachersare often stretched to cover multiple workloads while the centre struggle toreplace the teachers who leave.I wonder if childcare centres have been informed that preschool teachers areencouraged to upgrade their skills and the training will be subsidised by theGovernment. Perhaps centres should also consider offering better pay packagesto attract more to join and stay in a profession which can be challenging.Jiang Pei Ju

Changes with the timesI refer to “Private companies should pay their part” (May 21). I would like to offermy view as a full-time working mother.The opening hours designated by the Ministry of Community Development,Youth and Sports (MCYS) for childcare centres are 7am to 7pm on weekdays.I believed that these hours were decided many years ago, to give parents aleeway of 1.5 hours for them to travel to and from their workplace. But thesewere obviously based on office hours in the past when working from 8.30am to5.30pm on weekdays was the norm.However, with more companies now having moved to a five-day week, peopleleave their offices at 6pm.Not many of us using public transport will be able to reach the childcare centrewithin a hour. And this is assuming that there is no overtime work.Many parents ask their parents or in-laws to fetch their children from thechildcare centre. However, not everyone has the luxury of this alternativearrangement.I understand that there are centres that operate for extended hours beyond 7pm,but these are few and far between, and their vacancies are mostly full as theirlonger opening hours are a plus point for parents.I hope that MCYS will look into extending the hours for childcare centres.Without this, the issue of childcare will be a problem that won’t be resolved eventwith the opening of 200 new centres.Wendy Lee