The New Power Party (NPP) and representatives of several civic groups yesterday urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to build a national database of people with a record of child abuse to prevent them being employed at childcare centers.
While local governments have their own databases on child abuse cases, childcare professionals with abuse records would still be able to find jobs in other cities or countries unless such information is shared with the central government, Jing Chuan Child Safety Foundation chief executive Lin Yue-chin (林月琴) said.
“There is a lack of regulations governing such databases,” so the health ministry should follow the Ministry of Education’s example by establishing detailed regulations regarding its national database of teachers with misconduct records, she said.
Photo: CNA
Reducing stress among childcare professionals could also help prevent child abuse, she said.
“The high adult-to-child ratio increases the adults’ stress and if they lose emotional control, children become victims,” she said.
The national minimum adult-to-child ratio for children under two years is 1-5, which is relatively high compared with 1-3 in Canada and 1-4 in Australia, she said.
The government should also establish regulations requiring childcare centers to have a certain number of substitutes to ensure the ratio remains the same if regular staff members take time off, she said.
“In some cases, a childcare center can meet the 1-5 ratio when all its staff are working, but that ratio could increase to 1-8 or even 1-12 when some are taking time off,” she said.
To prevent the abuse of children at childcare centers, the government should improve education for childcare professionals on emotional management, instead of focusing solely on their childcare skills, Child Welfare League Foundation executive secretary Huang Yun-hsuan (黃韻璇) said.
When a childcare professional is reported for misconduct, local governments add the records to their own childcare professional database, Social and Family Affairs Deputy Director-General Chu Chien-fang (祝健芳) said.
When childcare providers hire new staff, the staff list is sent to the relevant local government agency, which would then check their system to see if that person has been blacklisted, she said.
The system can only be accessed by local government officials to check personal information such as ID numbers and addresses, she said, adding that the education ministry’s database is not open to the public.
The health ministry would consider building a national database to ensure the information can be shared by local governments, she said.
Under the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), local governments can publish the name of childcare professionals convicted of child abuse and the name of the center where they worked on government Web sites, she added.
NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) urged the health ministry to require all local governments to publish the name of childcare professionals with child abuse convictions and their places of employment, and offer a list of local governments that have not done so.
Chu said she would look into the proposal and report back in a week.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
RSS