Former Kinderland Sunshine Place preschool teacher given conditional warning for pushing child; operator fined S$5,000

[The_King]

SINGAPORE: A former educator at Kinderland @ Sunshine Place has been given a 12-month conditional warning by the police following investigations into a video that showed her pushing a child. 

Kinderland was fined S$5,000 for the incident at the Sunshine Place branch, which is in Choa Chu Kang. Its licence tenure has also been shortened from 36 to six months, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) on Tuesday (Feb 20). 

The teacher, previously identified as educator C by Kinderland, was seen "forcefully pushing" a three-year-old child in April 2022. 

Investigations were launched after footage of the incident surfaced in August 2023 and she was subsequently suspended by the school and arrested.

CNA has contacted the police for more information, including the reasons behind the conditional warning.

This incident followed a separate case where another teacher allegedly ill-treated children at Kinderland’s Woodlands Mart preschool. 

The 33-year-old woman was also arrested and later charged with one count of ill-treament of a child or young person. The court case is ongoing. 

Kinderland was also fined S$5,000 for the case at Woodlands Mart. Its licence tenure has also been shortened to six months.

ECDA has also rejected Kinderland's recent application to add a new centre into the Partner Operator Scheme. The scheme supports appointed centres to improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of childcare and infant care services.

CHILD MISMANAGEMENT INCIDENTS

ECDA said that it has reviewed the report by an independent review committee commissioned by Kinderland to examine the “child mismanagement” incidents at two of its centres. 

Based on inputs from the report, ECDA assessed that Kinderland headquarters had failed to exercise effective oversight over its centres’ staff training and supervision.

The agency said it has since directed Kinderland HQ to ensure all centres properly implement corrective actions.

To ensure that the corrective measures at the two Kinderland centres are sustained, ECDA said it will continue to limit their licence tenures to six months when the licences expire in March. 

Following the incidents last year, ECDA has been closely monitoring all Kinderland centres through more frequent unannounced checks on their classroom management practices.

"ECDA notes that immediate corrective actions have been implemented in all Kinderland centres following the incidents and will continue with stepped-up supervisory visits to ensure that Kinderland sustains these measures," said the authority.

In addition to immediate corrective actions, ECDA said Kinderland has implemented measures to address “system gaps” in staff training, supervision and execution of its whistleblowing policy across all its centres.

The authority said it will ensure that Kinderland HQ effectively implements these measures to enable adequate oversight of all its centres, a feedback loop to pinpoint gaps in processes and trigger timely intervention and rectification, as well as close monitoring and tracking to ensure all staff have the knowledge and competency to keep children safe and minimise child mismanagement incidents.

Source: CNA/zl(mi)

[chamfer]

The govt should blacklist all these preschool teachers who ill-treat kids other than jail/fines.