ABU DHABI // Creche operators have been warned that their centres will be closed down if they do not reach standards set to be enforced by the end of the year.
The nation’s 430 childcare centres will be ranked in a system similar to the star ratings used for hotels, assessing standards, staff and facilities.
Creches will be ranked A, B, C or D, and fees will be standardised based on their locations.
“These rankings will be visible at the entrance of nurseries, much like the star system at hotels,” said Moza Al Shoomi, head of the children’s department at the Ministry of Social Affairs.
“This year we will evaluate nurseries and by the end of the year the system will come into effect.”
Ms Al Shoomi said those found to be in breach of nursery regulations would be given a D grade until they improved.
Operators would have 90 days to get their centres in order, but if breaches continued after that their licence would be revoked and the nurseries shut down.
Creches found to be of low standards would also be given a D ranking and given six months to upgrade.
“We have regular inspections,” Ms Al Shoomi said. “We check if they comply to Civil Defence and fire safety standards. We also have a ‘secret mum shopper’ to check on nurseries and report back.”
She said up to 12 nurseries were shut down a year. Among the most common breaches was running unauthorised kindergarten classes.
“If they are licensed by the ministry, they cannot have KG,” Ms Al Shoomi said. “KG has its own curriculum and the licence comes either from the Ministry of Education or Abu Dhabi Education Council.
“Not all parents know this and end up paying fees for bogus education.”
Other problems included having too many children in one room, sharp objects lying around, open kitchens, open front doors and lack of a nurse.
But the biggest challenge, Ms Al Shoomi said, was that some centres were licensed by the Chamber of Commerce, not the ministry.
“These entities are labelled as child or skill-development establishments,” she said. “Their licence does not come from us. They are completely unsupervised.”
She said there were about 120 such centres in the country.
“Parents need to be warned about these places,” Ms Al Shoomi said. “They are not controlled. They are found to have even male staff working with children.
“Diseases can spread and they do not follow safety regulations. They pose a huge risk to children.”
The ministry is working to transfer these licences to its own system. After the nursery law is passed, no establishment will be allowed to operate without the ministry’s supervision.
“This is something we didn’t have in the nursery bill that we passed to the Cabinet,” Ms Al Shoomi said.
“We asked the Cabinet if we could amend the bill to address these establishments. Luckily they agreed and now the bill is back at Cabinet level.”
Once the bill is passed by the Cabinet it will go to the FNC for debate before being sent to Sheikh Khalifa, the President, for approval.
osalem@thenational.ae
