Budget 2013: More than $3 billion to improve quality of pre-school sector
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The Government will more than double its spending on the pre-school sector over the next five years to more than $3 billion, announced Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his Singapore Budget 2013 speech on Monday.
The extra funding in Singapore Budget 2013 will go to expanding the number of pre-schools and improving the quality of pre-school education. For parents, this will mean having more pre-school centres closer to their homes and workplaces and better quality teachers in these schools.
More operators will also join the anchor operators scheme resulting in 16,000 more pre-school places by 2017, he said.
Currently, there are two anchor operators - the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) and National Trades Union Congress' (NTUC) My First Skool. Their job is to provide good-quality and affordable pre-school programmes. In return, they get recurrent grants from the Government to help lower operating costs.
