Monday September 22, 2008
Hire a home manager instead
By TEH ENG HOCK
KUALA LUMPUR: Busy Malaysians who do not have time to carry out their household errands can soon hire home managers to help them.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said more women would be trained to become such managers to reduce the country’s dependency on foreign maids.
“There are 320,000 foreign maids in the country. That translates to a lot of outflow of the ringgit,” she said.
Dr Ng said home managers would assist in housekeeping and other domestic errands, such as paying household bills and buying groceries.
“They should be seen as trained professionals, and not domestic servants,” she said.
“They have the option of not living in the house, and this will suit households living in apartments who do not have an extra room.”
Dr Ng dismissed the perception that foreign maids were cheaper to hire because one had to pay the maid’s agency fee, medical fee and salary, and also face the risk of the maid running away.
Dr Ng also said she would also prepare women to be equipped with childcare skills so they could open home-based childcare centres.
She said a RM10mil grant had been allocated by the Finance Ministry for the training programme, which was expected to benefit some 1,000 people.
So far, more than 500 people have been trained as home managers or to start the childcare centres.
Besides undergoing the six-month training course, she said their police record would be checked to ensure they were not criminals.
She said she hoped Malaysia would have home-based childcare centres in most housing areas in five years.
“It will take time because we need to generate critical mass. Couples can drop off their children and pick them up after work,” she said.
Dr Ng said the centres would be different from existing kindergarten and nurseries, as it would specifically cater to babies and children below four years old.
She added they would only be allowed to take in a maximum of nine children.
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