Draft law requires parental access to kindergarten monitoring videos

CHANGSHA -- Lawmakers in central China's Hunan province are reviewing a law revision which would require kindergartens to provide parents with access to their monitoring video, so that they can see whether their children are being well cared for.

Review to the law on the protection of school children from personal injuries by the provincial people's congress of Hunan follows recent exposure of suspected children abuse cases in kindergartens.

The revision focuses on adding clauses detailing precautions against personal injuries to kindergarten-aged children, making clearer rules for nurseries and kindergartens concerning teaching conditions, building safety, sanitation and disease control and the use of monitoring systems.

It specifies that monitoring systems should cover every area of the kindergarten including dormitories, bathrooms and playgrounds. Kindergartens should give parents and guardians the access to the video.

Cao Ruifei, a political advisor and kindergarten principal, said that the legislation signifies reinforced government supervision of kindergartens. Meanwhile, the government should also increase funding for pre-school education so that kindergartens can raise enrollment quotas and teachers' salaries, and improve staff training.

In one of the widely reported cases, a female teacher surnamed Liu from the RYB Education New World Kindergarten in Beijing was arrested in December, after the procuratorate accused her of using sewing needles to "discipline" children who would not sleep.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Education said it has begun research on legislation for pre-school education to provide a legal guarantee of the operation and management standards of such institutions.