Shura to vote on nursery licensing amendment

TDT | Manama

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Shura members will be asked on Sunday to reject a draft amendment to the Child Law that would make nursery licences and official approval a clear legal condition for setting up, running or altering a nursery, after a new 2026 law covered the same area.

The Women and Child Affairs Committee has recommended voting the bill down in principle, saying the Private Educational Institutions Law, issued as Law No. 4 of 2026 on 28 January, now governs nurseries and kindergartens within a single legal framework that deals with licensing, approvals and penalties.

On that basis, the committee said the proposed changes to the Child Law have been overtaken.

The draft law was prepared to amend provisions of Law No. 37 of 2012 on the Child.

Approval

It aimed to make clearer which acts linked to nurseries are banned unless a licence has been issued or the competent authority has given approval, so that any criminal penalty rests on a clearer legal footing under the constitutional rule that crimes and punishments must be defined by law.

Under the proposal, the first paragraph of Article 63 would be replaced.

A new paragraph would be added to Article 20 to bar the acts referred to in the penal provision unless the licence or approval has been obtained.

The draft also updates disability-related wording in the Child Law by replacing older terms with “persons with disabilities” and “person with a disability”. A fourth article deals with implementation.