Experts agree that nurseries have numerous benefits for children in their early development stages.

Qatar’s education ministry has launched a campaign to raise awareness on unlicensed home nurseries, the Gulf state’s news agency (QNA) reported on Wednesday, as managers warned of the dangers of such institutions.

The “Be Cautious” initiative addresses the “phenomenon” of unlicensed nurseries nationwide in an effort to ensure children’s safety and security. 

Dr. Rania Mohamed, Director of the Nurseries Department, said the initiative helps move forward with steps to take legal action against unlicensed nurseries by providing parents with tools to report them.

As part of the campaign, the Private Education Affairs Sector at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) launched a page with all information parents need before enrolling their children into nurseries.

The page has several options for parents to learn about nurseries, the licensing of nurseries, supervision and control, and a list of 179 local nurseries, including those for children with disabilities.

“[MOEHE] welcomes visitor feedback to enhance the website while continuing to add significant and valuable content to benefit nurseries, how to manage this age group and its importance, as well as the contributions and accomplishments of nurseries,” the ministry said.

Speaking to Doha News, nursery managers have praised the campaign, citing the threats unlicensed nurseries have on children’s rights and safety.

“Such nurseries threaten the safety and violate the rights of children as they do not abide by the ministry’s rules and regulations and do not acknowledge the minimum limit required for providing protection to the children enrolled,” Natalia, manager at Little Montessori Nursery, told Doha News.

The nursery manager stressed that the responsibility for registering children in such illegal nurseries lies on both service providers and clients, pointing to the large number of licensed nurseries in Doha.

“Those nurseries are already there with better services, so why register their children in an unlicensed nursery and risk their safety? These nurseries are a violation of children’s rights,” Natalia said.

Legal nurseries not only abide by MOEHE’s regulations, but also ensure that children receive “proper education” she added.

“While at unlicensed  nurseries you never will find the minimum of those rules and regulations . As you will never know how children are treated, cleaned, ratio of adults taking care of them, quality of skills practised with them, no security cameras to track the safety and wellbeing of the kids,” Natalia said.

Experts agree that nurseries have numerous benefits for children in their early development stages, making quality education and care crucial for every parent.

However, while studies on the importance of daycare remain divided, a common denominator appears to be that nurseries and home childcare compliment one another.

However, the quality of education at nurseries plays a key role in a child’s development.

A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health identified a possible link between emotional and behavioural development among children who went to daycare and those who were taken care of by family and friends.

It found that those who went to daycare had less cases of behavioural issues, difficulty making friends and poor social skills.

Numerous guides on how to select the right daycare for children exist online for parents to make the decision on the institution they would want to enroll their children in.

One common piece of advice is to carefully research the nurseries and ask other parents about them. The research process also includes interviewing the centres and looking at their facilities to determine whether they are safe or not.

Some have even recommended conducting a random visit to the institutions.

Natalie urged residents to report any unlicensed nursery to the ministry and advised parents to utilise their right to ask for certificates and license of establishments to guarantee the nursery follows the system’s policies.

“Some parents register their children in unlicensed nurseries due to the low prices they offer, those nurseries are illegal and those employees tend to treat children incorrectly since such nurseries do not abide by the rules set by the official departments,” Natalie warned.