A recent child abuse incident occurred in a kindergarten in Keelung. Many family members of the child victims and the Taiwan Love Child Alliance have joined forces with People's Party legislators Cai Chunqi and Chen Zhaozi, and Keelung City Council candidates Lin Tinghan and Huang Shendong to go to the Ministry of Education to petition, demanding four major reforms, including improving the criminal liability for abuse, establishing a system for ensuring the qualifications of educational care and whistleblowers, clarifying the kindergarten's prevention and management responsibilities, and unifying the review of surveillance images and disclosing violation information. The Ministry of Education responded that relevant mechanisms have been established in existing laws and regulations, and it will continue to supervise the implementation of local governments and review relevant systems and enforcement practices.
The Ministry of Education stated that the current system has established a reporting and judicial cooperation mechanism for major illegal incidents. After the local government is informed of the illegal incident, in addition to providing child protection, care and related resources according to the needs of the case, if a criminal offense is involved, the police agency should be notified; the investigation process may also require the assistance of relevant agencies. Once the case is understood, the police agency will be notified in accordance with the law and the judicial investigation process will be entered. In addition, the current system has established a cross-platform regular inquiry on the qualifications of relevant personnel in education and health care services and a database of incompetent personnel. After local governments identify incompetent personnel in accordance with the law, relevant information should be published within the prescribed period; there are also confidentiality regulations for the information of whistleblowers and informants.
The Ministry of Education mentioned that the current "Early Childhood Education and Care Law" clearly stipulates that the person in charge of an educational security service institution is not allowed to be responsible for relevant matters, and there is also a corresponding handling mechanism for violations of the law by educational security service institutions and related personnel. In response to major or repeated incidents of mistreatment, the Ministry of Education has conducted an inventory review to determine whether the person in charge and the management of the institution need to further increase the amount of fines. The Ministry of Education has also completed an inventory of the responsibilities and penalties for violations of the same nature under the Early Childhood Education and Care Act and the Educational Care Service Personnel Ordinance, and will provide explanations and discussions in conjunction with the Legislative Yuan's bill review schedule.
Regarding the issue of the storage and access of surveillance video data and the mechanism for disclosing illegal information, the Ministry of Education pointed out that it has provided relevant precautions to local governments; information on the penalties and penalties of educational security service institutions has also been announced on the National Educational Security Information Network for public inquiry. If parents have a need for access with clear facts and a clear time frame in accordance with the precautions, the local government should provide assistance. If they encounter difficulties, the Ministry of Education will also require the local government to truly follow the relevant precautions.
