200 to be built in HDB estates and near MRT stations, bus interchanges
By
Li Xueying
COMING to an HDB estate near you: a childcare centre.
It is going to be much easier for parents to find a centre for their child, as 200 new childcare centres will be built in the heartland and near MRT stations and bus interchanges in the next five years.
The additions will expand the network by one-third to nearly 1,000 centres, offering places for 83,380 children.
At the same time, their quality will also go up, with the adoption of an integrated curriculum structure and better-trained teachers among other measures, said Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports.
He was speaking at a media conference on Tuesday, to give details of the perks announced earlier by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally.
The new efforts are aimed at making it easier for mothers to return to work.
But the question is how this will affect fees which, according to NTUC Childcare, the largest operator of childcare facilities with 39 centres, have risen by 3 per cent to 5 per cent since 2003.
Dr Balakrishnan indicated this was unavoidable, saying: 'We expect that salaries will have to go up. I think the cost of the childcare centres will also increase.
'If you want better services, you want more convenient services, there will be inevitably some increase in cost, which the operators will also have to cope with. Let's be practical about it.'
But the Government is giving significant increases in subsidies to offset the fees, he said, adding: 'So I don't think you should be worried that affordability is going to go down.'
From January, working mothers will get double the subsidy for each child taken to a childcare centre. They will get $300 a month, from $150. Infant-care subsidies will rise too, from $400 a month for each child to $600.
The new sums will pay for about half of the fees charged by these centres. On average, the monthly fee for childcare is $672 and for infant care, $1,165.
The bigger subsidies please Madam Poh Cheng Lian, 36, purchaser in an interior designing firm, and a mother of two.
She now pays $460 a month - after a $150 subsidy - for her four-year-old son, Nathan, to attend a nearby childcare centre. Her daughter, Natalie, seven, is in Primary 1.
The higher subsidies will save her $1,800 a year. 'That'd be a great help, giving us more disposable cash for such things as milk powder and enrichment classes,' she said.
Madam Poh also applauds the move to raise the number of places, adding that she waited a year for a place for her son. The crunch, she reckons, is for places in mid-price private centres.
But Dr Balakrishnan disclosed that, on average, enrolment at childcare centres is 80 per cent. 'So there's still some slack left in the system,' he said.
Meanwhile, the 'most critical challenge' for his ministry is to increase the pool of trained teachers.
In March this year, it was announced that there will be higher hurdles for preschool teachers to clear. For instance, they need five O-level credits and a diploma in preschool teaching.
To further raise their professional skills, the Government will give deserving teachers scholarships and bursaries to study in approved institutions.
An improved teacher-child ratio and a a common curriculum for all centres are in the works.
Meanwhile, eligible not-for-profit centres can seek funding from a government budget that will swell to $21 million a year, by 2013.
The changes take effect in January.
Also getting a boost are kindergartens. The Education Ministry will raise its fund for them from $17 million to $62.5 million by 2013, to help them hire better-qualified teachers and principals, and give better support to children weak in English.
Those eligible are non-profit bodies with a paid-up capital of at least $5 million and with no affiliation to religious or racial groups. About 52 per cent of the 428 kindergartens here meet this criteria.
Said Education Minister Ng Eng Hen at the media conference: 'The general direction is to raise the standard of preschool education...We want to enhance their learning development.'
In particular, the move for more teachers was music to the ears of Ms Ruth Low, chief executive of PAP Community Foundation, which runs over 250 kindergartens and 30 childcare centres.
'Research has proven that providing more teachers to the children will result in better-quality interactions.'
