The aim of regulating child care centres should not just be limited to providing protection in terms of the children’s safety and health. It should go beyond providing a ‘safe haven’ in order to enhance the potentials of the children. Therefore, the element of learning and education should be included as one of the legal requirements in regulating child care centres. This paper, therefore, examines the question of whether the educational element should be enacted in the legislative framework of Malaysian child care. The qualitative method is used in this study using document analysis. The laws and regulations on child care centres especially Child Care Centre Act 1984 are evaluated. Apart from the laws and regulations in Malaysia, analysis on international experiences of various jurisdictions which may be taken as lessons for Malaysia is also conducted in enhancing the laws and regulations of Malaysian child care. It is submitted that educational element is an important element to be embedded in laws and regulations governing child care centres in Malaysia early childhood apart from other legal requirements.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impulsively posed new challenges to many businesses and companies around the globe due to travel and business restrictions. COVID-19 which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 11th of March 2020, which originated from Wuhan City, the People’s Republic of China has consequently crashed the downtime of the economy in Malaysia and caused a significant impact on the Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) business operation. The present study employs a mixed methodology, which includes an analysis of primary and secondary legal sources, and a questionnaires survey. The aim of this research is to identify the legal impacts on SMEs due to the COVID-19 pandemic influences on a business operation which will further assist policymakers to develop actionable policies and support the growth of SMEs in Malaysia. The government should be transparent in disseminating the post-COVID-19 data because it can be a thrust for the SMEs in planning their future agenda to “bounce back” the economic sectors effectively.