In the wake of a horrific attack in Thailand wherein a man killed 24 children and 12 adults, Workers’ Party MPs Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) and He Ting Ru (Sengkang GRC) posed questions about the safety of Singapore’s pre-schools and whether existing security measures are sufficient.
In response to questions posed in Parliament on Thursday (Oct 20), Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling underlined that the safety of children in Singapore’s pre-schools is of utmost importance, and therefore measures have been implemented to protect both children and pre-school staff from security threats.
In particular, Ms He asked if training is provided to preschool staff to deal with unexpected security incidents and whether this training would be updated.
Mr Giam, on his part, also asked if the Ministry for Social and Family Development regularly checks that security measures are being implemented across all centres.
Ms Sun said in her reply that the security measures that the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) are regularly reviewed and updated as needed.
Pre-schools, she added, are required to keep premises secured, with most using electric locks, and the entry and exit of all persons are checked and recorded.
Procedures for emergency evacuation during a crisis as well as standard operating procedures to handle safety-related incidents, and injuries are also requirements for pre-schools.
She said, ”Emergency evacuation exercises for all children and staff in pre-schools must be conducted every six months. Such exercises ensure staff and children are familiar with the processes and are able to respond quickly during a crisis like fire, terrorist attack or bomb threat.”
However, Ms Sun also said that untoward incidents may still occur, despite the best efforts from EDCA and the pre-schools themselves to prepare for them.
“So apart from preventive measures, pre-schools, parents, and the wider community must stay vigilant and prepared to handle such incidents should they occur,” she added.
Mr Giam proceeded to ask Ms Sun a supplementary question whether all preschools are required by regulation to have their doors locked at all times and are opened only for authorised persons whose identity is authenticated by the centre staff, as well as whether pre-schools are required to maintain a list of pre-designated caregivers who are allowed to fetch children.
Ms Sun said in reply that “Most schools also would take note of who the caregiver is, who picks up the child, and there are also instances where if the caregiver is not someone that the school recognises that the school actually checks in with the family.” /TISG