'She would wear her school uniform on weekends and ask if we could go to school,' she recalled.

After just one trip to her then four-year-old's school in Kensington, London, Mrs Ng believed she could help reshape pre-school learning in Singapore.

In 1995, she started EtonHouse School with one centre in Broadrick Road and only 30 pupils.

Now the chain has grown to 10 local centres, seven in China and one in Indonesia. Her latest venture is a centre in Pune, India. The chain has more than 3,000 pupils and 328 staff.

Like EtonHouse, more local childcare centres are taking the Singapore brand overseas and showcasing the local education models.

Kinderland, for example, was the first pre-school in Singapore to venture overseas in the 1980s. Now, it has more than 20 centres in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

Another local brand, Cherie Hearts, has 50 centres here and is in the process of setting up others in China, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

It now has centres in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the next six months, it plans to expand to at least another 100 centres worldwide and is working with potential partners in Australia, India, Dubai and Thailand.

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said it has seen an increase in the number of pre-schools set up overseas by Singapore education providers but could not give exact numbers.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.