Child abuse in kindergartens calls for tighter management

Any member of staff at Beijing's RYB kindergarten, if proved by a police investigation to be involved in child abuse, should be shown no leniency in terms of legal penalties. And RYB Education, a New York listed company, to which the kindergarten is affiliated, should also receive deserved punishment for its lack of proper management.

This is not the first incident of its kind. There have been similar reports concerning other kindergartens in recent years. Neither is it the first one involving a kindergarten of RYB Education. Four teachers at an RYB kindergarten in Siping, Northeast China's Jilin province, received prison sentences for jabbing 17 children with needles last year.

True, a lack of qualified teachers has long been a headache for kindergartens, whose number has been increasing rapidly. The development of preschool education in the country still lags far behind the boom in demand. It is thus natural for some kindergartens to recruit teachers who have never received the training required for the job.

Yet, it is still unimaginably horrendous that some kindergarten teachers should force the children in their care to ingest pharmaceutical drugs they are not supposed to eat, give them injections for untold purposes, and physically and psychologically abuse the youngsters.

It is not a matter of simply teachers being qualified or unqualified. It is matter of them having not a smattering of professional ethics and having lowered themselves below the standards of being a decent person with their actions.

How can a kindergarten recruit such teachers? Does a kindergarten have rules for teachers to abide by when it comes to how they should treat the children placed in their care? It is imperative that kindergartens employ those who have been trained for the work.

It is never enough to just punish the teachers once a child abuse case occurs in a kindergarten. Neither is it justifiable to cite the lack of qualified teachers as an excuse for the poor and sloppy management on the part of both kindergartens and the education authority of a local government.

Strict requirements must be in place that both public and private kindergartens have to abide by when it comes to the qualification of teachers, as well as other aspects of kindergarten care.

The investigation into the RYB kindergarten scandal is still going on. It is hoped that the publication of the results will give the lie to the rumors rampant on the internet about the scandal. It is also hoped that the supervision and management of kindergartens will be effectively tightened nationwide for children to get the care they deserve.