The Da Nang People’s Committee has closed a private day-care facility in Thanh Khe District for further investigation into potential violations, after a video clip was posted on Monday showing aggressive behaviour from staff.

Images from a video clip that showed aggressive behaviour towards children at a kindergarten in Thanh Khe District.

The city asked the departments of Education and Training, and Public Security, as well as relevant agencies to conduct a wide investigation, and curb any aggressive or ill-mannered behaviour committed by nurses in the kindergarten.

During the 10-minute video clip, which was recorded by a nursemaid (the source did not reveal his/her name), a baby-sitter is seen threatening and striking a child during lunchtime.

The woman, who was later identified as Dinh Thi Thu Hong, manager of the facility on Thai Thi Boi Street, hit and slapped the child’s mouth, while she was feeding the child. The child is later seen lying motionless on the floor. The nurse also struck a second child during the lunch break.

Thac Gian Ward’s public security officials, alongside an inspection team of the Education and Training Department, demanded the manager of the offended day-care facility cease working on Monday to identify what happened on the clip.

The private day-care facility, certified in 2013, nurtures 14 children, of whom 3 are aged between 6 months to one year old, and 11 are aged from 13 to 36 months.

All the children left the kindergarten after lunch, and were sent to hospital for health examinations.

The city’s Public Security Department has officially begun an investigation into the violations at the facility, and claimed that it’s the first recorded serious violation on children at a kindergarten in the city.

Da Nang plans to implement a pilot project on providing care for babies from 6 to 18 months at 21 public kindergartens – the first of its kind in central Viet Nam – later this year.

According to the Education and Training Department, the city has 205 kindergartens, of which 136 are private. Most only accept three-year-olds due to limited nursery services for new-born babies.

In a survey released by the city, 34% of those surveyed said teachers often punished them by slapping their face and wrist, while 33% were hit with objects.

At least 260 school-girls said they were victims of physical violence at school, according to Deputy Director of the Education and Training Department, Nguyen Minh Hung.

50% of the students kept silent about violations at school and in society.

(Source: VNS/ DA NANG Today)