INCHEON (KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Reports of suspected child abuse cases have flooded local police offices, officials said, as the authorities scrambled to deal with public uproar sparked by the beating of a four-year-old girl at an Incheon day care centre.

Incheon's Samsan Police Station said last Saturday that it had begun an investigation into a claim that a 25-year-old day care worker in Bugae-dong, Incheon, abused several preschoolers.

The accused worker has admitted to the accusations, and the police are planning to take her into custody after conducting further investigation into surveillance footage at the centre.

Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said it has booked three teachers at an English kindergarten in Bucheon, between Seoul and Incheon, on suspicion of mistreating children and the manager for allegedly overlooking the abuse. The parents of children at the kindergarten had filed complaints against them to the local police in November, claiming the teachers took the students to dark rooms to beat them.

Officials said the suspected abusers have admitted to using disciplinary measures, but denied using violence.

"The CCTV images show the teachers taking the children to a blind spot of the cameras, but it is not enough to say with certainty that there has been violence," an official said. But as the surveillance images do show the children being punished, the police are planning to recommend to the prosecutors that they indict the accused.

A parent of a three-year-old in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, also filed complaints to the police that her son may have been mistreated at a day care centre, after she found bruises on his buttocks.

Nationwide concern about child abuse by child care workers has erupted since a 33-year-old worker at an Incheon day care centre was seen on CCTV footage slapping and punching a child for not finishing her meal. A subsequent investigation found further abuses by the worker, including making death threats to another child. A court issued an arrest warrant for the worker last Saturday.

The case prompted the government to toughen punishments for child abuse by childcare workers. Both the ruling Saenuri Party and the Welfare Ministry have released plans to implement measures to increase child protection at day care centres, including requiring surveillance cameras and strengthening the required qualifications for staff.

The authorities will also implement a "one strike" system, in which a day care centre would be shut down after a single case of child abuse is found. The perpetrator and the head of the facility would also be permanently banned from working in similar jobs.

Even childcare workers themselves said the government needs to implement stricter standards.

Ms Hwangbo Eun Hee, who studies early childhood education at Sookmyung University, carried out a survey on workers in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, and 87 per cent said they thought the current vetting system needed improvement.

The respondents also generally welcomed the idea of conducting a personality evaluation and aptitude tests when certifying childcare workers, giving the idea an average of 4.19 points out of 5.

Last week, Mr Shin Hak Yong of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy proposed a Bill mandating character education in the training course for childcare workers at colleges.

"There has been nationwide concern over the qualifications of childcare workers. We (lawmakers) need to ensure such concerns are addressed and the qualified workers are not penalised in any way," said Mr Shin.

"The Bill will contribute to find effective countermeasures (against child abuse by childcare workers)."