We thank Dr Yeo Chwee Hong for her letter (New housing estates need more pre-schools, March 8).

We strive to ensure access to quality, affordable infant and child care in areas with new housing developments and many young families.

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) closely monitors the demand for infant and child care in the various housing estates, considering factors such as the profile of families and availability of pre-schools in the vicinity.

We will continue to develop new infant and child care places in areas of demand where there are many young families - both in new estates and in conjunction with Build-To-Order developments in more mature estates.

For example, in Punggol and Sengkang, infant and child care places have grown by nearly 60 per cent in the past five years - from 15,000 in 2017, to almost 24,000 places today.

Infant and child care places in the more mature Bukit Batok estate have increased by 55 per cent since 2017. This growth is significantly higher than the average increase of 30 per cent in other parts of Singapore.

We recognise that some families in certain estates face challenges finding a place close to home.

This could be due to factors such as parents' preferences for specific pre-schools or for a pre-school in their immediate vicinity.

Some new centres may also require time to ramp up their operations and enrolment.

While we are building new pre-schools to meet local demand, we seek the understanding of parents that it may not always be possible to immediately secure a pre-school place close to their homes.

To meet the needs of parents, ECDA will continue to increase capacity, particularly in new housing developments, and will be developing around 10,000 new child and infant care places by next year.

Cynthia Leow

Director, Policy and Sector Funding

Early Childhood Development Agency