SINGAPORE — An additional 1,700 childcare places will be available in the third quarter of the year, with about half of them concentrated in the north and north-east, bringing relief to areas where competition for a spot is stiff.
Announced by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) yesterday, between 10 and 15 per cent of the enrolment could also be set aside for infant care.
Seventeen centres will be built to provide these places, which are offered by anchor operators. The three newly-appointed anchor operators — MY World Preschool, Skool4Kidz and E-Bridge Pre-school — will be managing three centres each. NTUC’s My First Skool and PAP Community Foundation (PCF) will run four centres each.
MY World Preschool will also be converting 11 existing centres to the anchor operator scheme.
Anchor pre-school operators are given grants to lower their operating costs. In return, they are expected to provide quality and affordable pre-school places, with fees capped at S$720 for a full-day childcare programme and S$160 for kindergartens.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development has said it will be building at least 45 more childcare centres this year. By 2017, the anchor operators are expected to provide 16,000 more childcare places.
Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing, who was speaking during a visit to MY World Preschool at Simei yesterday, said he is very confident of the response to the new anchor operator centres. This is because the sites have been selected according to demand, which is based on feedback from grassroots leaders and pre-school centres in the area.
Anchor operators were also encouraged to synergise their operations within a local town area, so they can cross-deploy their resources when needed, said Mr Chan.
E-Bridge run by EtonHouse will have three centres in Punggol and Sengkang, while Skool4Kidz, which is part of the Kinderland Consortium, will have three centres in Woodlands. However, pointing to My First Skool and PCF, Mr Chan said the new anchor operators would be spreading their centres across Singapore as they build up their critical mass.
He added that the allocation of future sites would be based on the operators’ expansion plans and performance and they would be assessed by an independent team of education specialists. Moving forward, the anchor operators could also offer half-day kindergarten options, in which parents can tap the Kindergarten Financial Assistance Scheme, noted Mr Chan.
Since the list of new anchor operators was announced, operators interviewed said they had received a steady flow of enquiries about places.
While PCF, MY World Preschool and Skool4Kidz will be allocating places on a first-come, first-served basis, E-Bridge has asked parents to fill up an online form and registration details will be given out later. My First Skool General Manager Adeline Tan said priority might be given to those living near the centres and some places are reserved for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The pre-school operators also said they are gearing up for their new centres and noted the challenge of hiring teachers in time. Dr Jane-Ching Kwan of Skool4kidz said she had hired five of 30 teachers needed and would be holding recruitment fairs and working with training institutions to train teachers.
Mr Alan Goh, 33, a father of three, expects the soon-to-be-opened E-Bridge Pre-school to see overwhelming demand due to the EtonHouse brand name. Suggesting that pre-schools consider priority admission for children with both parents working, he said: “I am not sure if I want to queue for a place and be disappointed again.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that E-Bridge run by EtonHouse has three centres in Woodlands, while Skool4Kidz, which is part of the Kinderland Consortium, has three centres in Punggol and Sengkang. This is incorrect. E-Bridge run by EtonHouse will have three centres in Punggol and Sengkang, while Skool4Kidz, which is part of the Kinderland Consortium, will have three centres in Woodlands. This article was edited at 9.45am on April 5, 2014.
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