An investigation has found that 80 percent of so-called “kindergarten classrooms” in the nation are in breach of fire codes, the Jing Chuan Child Safety Foundation said on Thursday last week.
Kindergarten classrooms is an industry term referring to commercially owned education venues catering to children aged six or younger that have more than five students, foundation executive director Lin Yue-chin (林月琴) told a news conference in Taipei.
The probe, which investigated 25 establishments in six cities, found that many had registered their place of business in spaces designated for use as residential spaces or air raid shelters, Lin said.
Photo: Lin Hsiao-yun, Taipei Times
These venues lacked fire extinguishers, emergency lights and escape routes, with many being in upper levels of tall office buildings, including one on the 14th floor, she said.
Government regulations state that cram schools catering to children of comparable age are required to be no higher than the fourth floor of a building to facilitate escape during an emergency and must have safety equipment, she said.
The unsafe conditions of kindergarten classrooms is in large part due to the lack of government oversight, which has allowed owners to register schools as performance arts groups, fitness centers or commercial offices, to name a few of the pretexts, Lin said.
This problem is likely to get worse without government intervention, because the law stipulates no penalties for running a kindergarten classroom under such conditions, she said.
Additionally, many schools brand themselves as having kindergarten classrooms, but advertise exclusively on social media without divulging the names and credentials of their faculty members as the law requires, she said.
Last year, two adults and four children drowned in the Beishih River (北勢溪) in the Hubaotan (虎豹潭) area of New Taipei City’s Shuangsi District (雙溪) during a field trip organized by an operation running unlicensed kindergarten classrooms, she said.
A survey by the foundation last year indicated that 67 percent of parents send their children to a kindergarten class two or three times a week, suggesting that the industry makes about NT$200 million (US$6.62 million) annually, Lin said.
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