Macau (MNA) – The lack of a centralised registration system for nursery admission in Macau is one of the critical issues which have reportedly led to a recent ‘nursery chaos,’ Synergy Macao told Macau News Agency (MNA).
As most of the public funded nurseries and day care centres announced their admission results in early May, many parents have expressed anger and sorrow on social media networks upon learning their children have been denied a place.
Lei, the mother of a 2-year old, told MNA that her son was refused admission to all of the 13 childcare centres she had applied to, in addition to not being included on any of the waiting lists.
“It is so much pressure. If my child is not admitted to a public funded nursery school, then I would need to apply for a privately owned nursery school, which would create a financial burden for my family,” said Ms. Lei.
She added that privately owned nurseries would cost her at least some MOP4,000 per month, which she claims is not affordable for her at the moment.
“I am in a real dilemma right now. I have to either take my child to a private nursery school or take care of him at home,” she contended. “But the latter option would not work because my husband and I both have a full-time job.”
The only reply or solution she received from the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) was to wait until September to see if there would be any free nursery place for her child.
The President of the Association Synergy Macau, Lam U Tou, pointed out that the underlying reasons behind this “dilemma” owes to the lack of a central registration system or a unified timetable of admission results, which he claims would be the only ways to improve the current situation.
“Parents get nervous or panic only if they have no solid answer on whether their children are getting into a nursery school. When parents successfully secure a spot in a nursery school, they hold it until the very end because they always want to wait until the last minute to see if the school they want has accepted the application for their children,” explained Mr. Lam. “This is taking place because announcement dates of different school vary.”
“More importantly, parents would not hold on to these seats until the very last minute if they were not panicked or insecure about the future,” added Lam.
For parents who are not on the nursery admission waiting list, another round of drawing will be conducted in September if there are additional free spaces in public nurseries, according to Lam.
[Edited by Sheyla Zandonai]
