Physical Environment Legal Requirement On Child Care Centres: Too Minute To Be Focused On?

Abstract

In regulating child care centres in Malaysia, there are certain legal requirements that need to be fulfilled by child care operators. These legal requirements are the structural quality features which are translated into laws and regulations. One of the requirements that often neglected is the physical environment. This paper examines the question on whether the physical environment feature is an important legal requirement that necessitate improvements in the legislative framework of Malaysian child care. The importance of physical environment is explained by referring to the previous studies and research. Then, the laws and regulations in Malaysia involving Child Care Centre Act 1984 and Child Care Centre Regulation 2012 are evaluated according to the relevant sections and regulations.Recommendations are then made for Malaysia to improve its laws and regulations regarding physical environment based on research and practices from Malaysia itself and other jurisdictions as benchmarks. The legislations from other jurisdiction are also being taken into consideration in finding and improving the legislation in Malaysia