Pre-school teacher suspended after kicking 5-year-old girl in the shin

SINGAPORE - A pre-school teacher was suspended after an investigation found that she had kicked a five-year-old girl in her right shin to get her to sit properly on April 2.

A spokesperson for the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) told The Straits Times on June 5 that it was alerted to the incident on April 3.

The ECDA said that the childcare centre suspended the teacher after conducting its investigations.

“The errant teacher subsequently resigned and, to date, she has not been working in the pre-school sector,” the ECDA said, adding that it has taken regulatory actions against the pre-school operator and the teacher involved, without elaborating.

The police confirmed that a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing. The childcare centre did not respond to ST’s queries about the incident.

Neither the school nor the parents can be named as it could lead to the identification of the affected child, which is not allowed under the Children and Young Persons Act.

The child’s parents told ST that they reported the case to the police on April 2, and were advised to take their daughter for a medical check-up at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

A medical report seen by ST stated that the child had a 1cm by 1cm haematoma or bad bruise on her right shin.

In an e-mail sent to the girl’s father on May 14, the ECDA said it had reviewed the childcare centre’s closed-circuit television camera footage and interviewed its employees. “We have ascertained that the staff had adopted inappropriate classroom management methods when she kicked your child to make her sit properly before (a) nap,” the agency told the father, who has since moved the child to another school.

The father said he and his wife are “extremely relieved” that the teacher is no longer working in the childcare centre.

He added that his daughter used to dislike any show with “villains and conflicts” before the incident, but she is now interested in martial arts for “she wants to stop the bully”, he said.

The ECDA said in its statement on June 5 that it requires all pre-school operators to have “systemic measures” to keep children safe. These include ensuring that child-safe policies and procedures are consistently and effectively implemented.

“Pre-schools must also ensure that their educators use developmentally appropriate methods to interact with children,” the agency said.

Parents and employees of pre-schools can report any suspected child mismanagement to the ECDA at

contact@ecda.gov.sg

.