Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused the Ministry of Health and Welfare of slow inspections of children’s playgrounds for compliance with safety standards.
The ministry in January 2017 raised safety standards for playgrounds, which apply to non-motorized recreational equipment intended for use by children aged two to 12, with a three-year grace period for compliance.
The grace period is set to expire in January next year, but the ministry has only inspected 1,208 playgrounds out of the 10,472 across the nation, DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) told a news conference in Taipei, citing the last government report issued in June last year.
Photo: Lin Kuo-hsien, Taipei Times
The ministry should rethink whether it has enough inspectors to accomplish its task, whether the regulatory standards are realistic and whether the grace period is sufficient, she said.
DPP Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) said that the ministry should make sure schools have enough funding to replace old equipment, while DPP Legislator Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) called for assistance to help schools maintain these equipment.
The Taiwan Early Childhood Education Association said in a report it submitted for the news conference that current regulations fail to make a distinction between supervised and unsupervised playgrounds.
Cheng Ying-chang (鄭英昌), general manager of testing service provider SGS Taiwan, said that based on his estimates, as of the end of last year, the government had inspected about 30 percent of the nation’s playgrounds and the ministry should be able to meet its target with its current staff.
The Ministry of Education will not rule out extending the grace period if child safety is not compromised, K-12 Education Deputy Director-General Hsu Li-chuan (許麗娟) said.
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