10 in Punggol and Sengkang - places that tend to draw young families
By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 3 Jan 2014
AT LEAST 45 new childcare centres are expected to be built this year islandwide, with the bulk of them in areas with high demand for pre-school services.
In Punggol and Sengkang alone, 10 new centres will be added to shorten the wait for childcare places in these two housing estates, which tend to attract young families. Seven new centres will be in Punggol, and the remaining three in Sengkang.
The rest will be built in areas like Woodlands - which will get 13 new pre-schools - Tampines, Pasir Ris and Yishun.
The centres coming up this year are part of the 200 new ones the Government has said it will build by 2017.
Giving an update on the plans to ramp up childcare places, Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing said yesterday that the Government is "on track" to meet the target.
The expansion will result in an additional 20,000 places, enough for one in two children, up from one in three currently. Just five years ago, the ratio was one in six.
The expansion will result in an additional 20,000 places, enough for one in two children, up from one in three currently. Just five years ago, the ratio was one in six.
"For some of the newer towns like Punggol and Sengkang, the demand is a bit higher because the families may not have as much support from the grandparents," Mr Chan said, after a visit to a childcare centre in Punggol.
Punggol now has 30 centres with enough places for about one in three children. Sengkang has 73 centres providing enough places for almost one in two children.
By the end of 2017, there will be 47 centres in Punggol, and 92 in Sengkang, which will provide enough places for more than one in two pre-schoolers.
Mr Chan said the authorities will continue to look at innovative ways to site centres, with some built alongside existing facilities.
Yesterday, he visited a PAP Community Foundation Sparkletots centre on the first floor of a multi-storey carpark in Punggol.He later officiated at the opening of the NTUC My First Skool centre at Braddell Heights Community Hub in Serangoon, which was formerly a bus interchange.
It is the first childcare centre in Singapore to be built on the same site as an eldercare facility run by NTUC Eldercare. Mrs Adeline Tan, general manager of My First Skool, said: "In future, we plan to have activities where the children from the childcare centre can interact with the elderly from the eldercare centre."
The centre is also one of two "model" centres set up under a collaboration between local philanthropic organisation Lien Foundation and NTUC First Campus.
The centre, which can take in about 230 children for its childcare and infant-care programmes, features rooms designed for specialised play and music lessons, and a courtyard for art and water play. Teachers will explore new ways of teaching pre-schoolers, such as incorporating the use of information technology in class.
The other "model" centre in Jurong is expected to start operations in April.
Said IT director Yan Chin Keong, 39, who has a two-year- old at the Serangoon centre: "It is very spacious, and my daughter warmed up to it instantly."
Anchor operator scheme attracts 16 applications
By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 3 Jan 2014
By Priscilla Goy, The Straits Times, 3 Jan 2014
SIXTEEN applications have been submitted from organisations looking to become "anchor operators" of childcare centres, Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing revealed yesterday.
The outcome of the applications is expected to be made known in the first quarter of this year, he said, without giving details on how many applicants his ministry intends to pick. But some industry players say they expect only a handful to be selected.
The authorities announced last June that the anchor operator scheme would be widened to include commercial operators and voluntary welfare organisations.
Anchor operators get government help - such as rental subsidies and priority in securing Housing Board premises for new centres - in exchange for keeping fees low.
There are now only two anchor operators - NTUC's My First Skool and the PAP Community Foundation, which together run about a fifth of more than 1,000 childcare centres in Singapore.
Expanding the scheme could lead to cheaper and better pre-school programmes for the average Singaporean family.
Some of Singapore's biggest private pre-school operators have applied for the scheme, including EtonHouse. A joint proposal has also been submitted by Modern Montessori International (MMI) and Carpe Diem.
MMI's chairman T. Chandroo said the number of applications is "encouraging". This is despite the strict qualifying criteria, which require operators to provide a financial guarantee of six months of operating costs or $10 million, whichever is lower, among others.
"It shows people are interested in the scheme," Dr Chandroo said, but added that he thinks only two or three will be selected, as it is the first time the scheme has been expanded.