By Niza Wan Yahya
If you’ve decided to send your child to a national school, you also need to plan for after-school childcare. Seeing that national schools are single-session schools, your son or daughter will need to attend either the morning session (roughly 7.30am to 12.30pm) or the afternoon session (about 12.30pm to 6.30pm). If you’re a working mother or even a mother working from home but requires the flexibility to go out for meetings and chores, you would have to find alternative daycare for after-school hours. As with any other decision, it is best to list down your options and consider all the pros and cons.
1. Maid/domestic helper
An obvious solution is to hire a maid and get her to watch over your child in the afternoon, provided you can trust her (and have trained/watched her for some time). The advantage of this solution is that you child can rest in the comfort of his or her own home rather than attending more classes or going to a stranger’s house. I’m sure the disadvantages of this option is known to all – having a stranger take full care of your child’s well-being can be a very difficult choice with tragic consequences for some unfortunate victims. If you choose this option, make sure you have conducted your research on the helper’s trustworthiness – if all else fails, install CCTV cameras in the house and monitor them right from your office desktop/iPad.
2. Babysitter/Transit homes
Transit homes are plentiful in most mature neighborhoods. This is an arrangement where an adult, usually the husband, will pick up your child from school (usually in a van together with other kids) and to his home. His wife will then usually prepare lunch for all the children as well as getting them to shower, change and have lunch. They can either then go for religious schools (see option 3) in the afternoon or stay in the couple’s house to play and do homework. This arrangement is ideal for working parents who do not have a maid or have had issues with previous ones, thus preferring an arrangement which is more public.
3. Sekolah Rendah Agama (SRA)
SRA is a half-day schooling option for Muslim children, where kids attend religious classes (under state religious department JAIS) during the session where they are not in primary national school. With proper transportation arrangements, your child can go home or the babysitters’ for lunch and attend SRA in the afternoon. The advantage of this arrangement is that your child will be able to attend both schools (secular and religious), however this may make them exhausted by the end of the day and thus too tired to have dinner or attend to their homework.
4. Tuition/daycare centres
A relatively new development, there are now places that offer daycare and tuition services for your primary school-going children. An example of this is WynKids, a holistic education provider that also provides after-school daycare and homework guidance (additional fees for them to pick up your child from school and from the centre to your own home). This is ideal for the busy working parents who need help in managing their kids’ tuition and homework inventory (you will realize when you have a school-going child how much homework they have!)
5. YOU
This is undoubtedly the best choice any parent can make. If there is any way you can cut back on working hours, take on flexi-hour arrangements, work on a part-time basis (e.g. three days a week) or work from home, this is undeniably the best situation and option for your child. Nothing like having his or her own mother around to create the best environment for your child to grow up in Image may be NSFW.
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Where will your little one go after school if you are working?