JEDDAH: Saudi scholarships students in Australia say the costs of kindergartens are prohibitive at A$75 per day which is why some of them are hiring illegal babysitters who are cheaper.

A female Saudi scholarship student in Melbourne, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she and her colleagues need to look for kindergartens while studying at university.

She added their high costs have forced to them look to “non-professional” kindergartens operated by Arabs which are less expensive.

“I found a female Arab babysitter through the same ‘professional’ I used to send my child to and at a cheaper price; I hired her to look after my child while I am at the university,” she said.

“Once I came to pick my child up from the kindergarten and saw the babysitter pull my child’s hair and beat her, which made me remove my child on the spot and register her in another kindergarten that charged A$75 per day, she said.

“My husband and I wanted to file a complaint against the babysitter but we reconsidered because we thought it would be better as that kindergarten was not registered,” she said.