By Olasunkanmi Akoni

As part of measures to regularise operations and comply with acceptable international standard, the Lagos State Government has said that all caregivers operating in the state must henceforth undergo appropriate training with the aim of eliminating quackery in the sector.

The state’s Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Agboola Dabiri made the remark at a briefing ahead of a three-day Foundational Training on Professional Childcare, organised by the ministry in collaboration with Nanny Centre, operated by a certified member of the International Nanny Association and a registered vocational trainer.

Dabiri, who said that the training programme would cover social workers, nannies and other relevant stakeholders involved in caring for babies and the elderly, stressed that training certification would henceforth be one of the pre-requisites to operate children or elderly caring centres in the state.

The Commissioner explained that participants would be trained on child development and creativity, health and safety, child nutrition, child care and household management, child protection and upbringing, pre-requisites for registering crèches and Day-care centres in the state among others.

Agboola said the ministry would use the opportunity of the training to collate the data of all caregivers operating in the state with a view to regularising their operations and making them comply with acceptable standards across the globe.

He said: “What the state government is saying is that it is unprofessional for anybody to just wake up and become a self-acclaimed caregiver overnight without having the requisite knowledge of what the profession entails or without the needed training.

“Before now, the job of care-givers have been under-rated unlike other professions like teaching, accounting and others and this wrong notion is responsible for the various delinquencies we see in some of our children.”

He added that it was high time caregivers were accorded their due recognition considering the fact that nannies, crèches and daycare centres form the formative stages for child development.

According to him, in a cosmopolitan state like Lagos where the daily engagement of parents sometimes compel them to engage the services of caregivers, the state government would do everything within its power to ensure that the practices of all caregivers in the state comply with international standard.

He said: “The state government is interested in gathering relevant data about caregivers to determine their suitability to take up care-giving profession considering the health and safety issues that little children are susceptible to.”