This will bring the number of places from about 63,000 in 739 centres as at Jan, to about 83,000 in 940 centres.

It is also an increase of 10,000 places or 100 childcare centres, on top of what the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) had announced earlier this year in March.

MCYS minister of state Yu-Foo Yee Shoon gave this update in Parliament on Tuesday, when replying to a question from Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) on childcare affordability and supply.

Mrs Yu-Foo said this is a perennial issue as more families have both parents working, and as more people want more early childhood development services for their kids.

The new centres will be 'in HDB estates and near transport nodes to make it even more accessible and convenient for parents', she said.

The sites for them will be 'released progressively in phases to commercial providers and voluntary welfare organisations'.

The increased number of childcare centres will likely 'bring about more competition' and 'moderate fees at an affordable level', she said. Childcare fees have recently been on the rise, due to increased costs of living and higher educational requirements for teachers.

Yet, the challenge is 'not in the hardware, but in attracting people' to work as childcare providers, she said.

Madam Halimah had pointed out that the quality of childcare centres depended on the quality of its staff, but low salaries paid out often meant centres could not attract better staff.

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) also asked if there were plans to improve the image of childcare staff.

To that, Mrs Yu-Foo said that though some private childcare centres were known to have teachers with degrees, and that despite increased subsidies and higher training criteria from the Government, 'we still need some time to improve the image'.