To keep pre-school education more affordable for the average Singaporean family, sites in Housing Board premises will not be awarded to private childcare centre operators based solely on the highest bid price.

Instead, the authorities will consider a range of factors such as the fees the operator intends to charge, the quality of its programmes and its track record.

These factors will make up 50 per cent of the evaluation score. The other 50 per cent will be based on the bid amount.

Under the new evaluation criteria, affordability of the childcare centre fees will account for 20 per cent of the score, followed by the operator's track record (15 per cent), quality of programmes (10 per cent) and whether the operator's programmes offer assistance to the less advantaged and promote community integration (5 per cent).

Acting Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing announced the revised tender evaluation process on Thursday, during a visit to Agape Little Uni at Jurong West Avenue 3.

The current system of awarding sites to the highest bidders has led to a bidding war among private pre-school operators. This drives up the costs of pre-school education as operators tend to pass on the increased costs to parents by raising fees.

The first two sites to come under the new process are located at Teban Gardens Road and Punggol Field. The tenders will open on Friday.