Childcare centres would be the last place where you would expect rude gestures to be shown, much less by the person running the place. However, the head of one such childcare centre located in the Western part of Singapore was accused of doing just that.

According to Shin Min Daily News, Madam Kuang had dropped her six-year-old son off at a kindergarten childcare centre on Sept 19. At that time, the childcare centre was preparing to bring their wards to the Jurong Bird Park for an excursion.

After entrusting her ward to the childcare centre, Madam Kuang, then proceeded to walk out of the building. On her way out, she happened to cast a glance at the excursion coach buses that were stopped outside the centre.

"When I lifted my head to look at the buses, I saw the head of the childcare centre placing three children on a seat meant for two people. I felt that something was amiss, so I shook my head.

"I didn't expect the head of the childcare centre to see me and to show me the middle finger," the 42-year-old waitress told Shin Min.

She also said that she had no clue as to why the principal had made the action.

"Together with another parent, I had lodged a complaint to Shin Min in April about a teacher in the childcare centre using corporal punishment. That teacher was subsequently sacked. I believe this may be the trigger for the head's action," continued Madam Kuang.

Madam Kuang has told her MP about the childcare centre putting three children into a two-seater and hopes to get a satisfactory reply, continued the report.

Childcare head: I was just making a headcount

When questioned by Shin Min, the head of the childcare centre had said that she had not pointed her middle finger at Madam Kuang, but was using her fingers to make a headcount of the children on the bus.

"At first I thought there were only 58 children on the bus, but later I found out that there were 59. In order to let the bus driver know, I lifted up a finger to indicate that there was one extra child on the bus," she said.

She also added that as she was using all five fingers to make the headcount, a misunderstanding could have occurred.

"I called Madam Kuang to explain the situation after the incident, but she refused to accept the explanation," continued the childcare head.

According to Shin Min, the head had also explained that she had squeezed three children into a seat meant for two because there weren't enough seats available.

"I had asked the bus captain earlier and he said that it should not pose a problem as the children had small body sizes," she said.

Earlier this year, an eight-year-old boy was killed in a road accident involving the school bus he was on. 

His death pushed to prominence the issue of fitting seat belts into school buses as many have felt that he would not be killed if the bus had been fitted with seat belts.

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