MOE reviewing how it selects, monitors student care providers after ending Little Professors’ service

SINGAPORE – Following the

termination of student care operator Little Professors’ service

on Feb 14, the Ministry of Education (MOE) is reviewing how it selects and monitors providers of such services.

Giving an update on Feb 20, Mrs Tan Chen Kee, MOE’s deputy director-general of education (schools), said the ministry’s immediate priority is to ensure continued care for the 1,800 children in the eight affected primary schools and find a permanent operator to take over as soon as possible.

She was speaking to the media during a visit to Jing Shan Primary School in Ang Mo Kio to see how school staff have been deployed to oversee after-school care for its primary school and MOE kindergarten children.

The school is one of the eight where Little Professors Learning Centre had operated student care services.

The company also provided after-school care of children at MOE kindergartens – KCare – located in six of the schools.

ST reported on Feb 14 that 54 employees had lodged reports over unpaid January salaries and Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions since November 2025.

Several employees of Little Professors told ST that they stopped working on Feb 10 after the company failed to pay their January salary, which was due on Feb 7.

As at Feb 20, 78 employees have lodged salary claims against Little Professors.

The Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) said it has been working with the Education Services Union to contact affected workers and help them to lodge salary claims.

It will also assess the affected workers’ eligibility for financial assistance under the Short-Term Relief Fund or Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is investigating the company for possible offences under the Employment Act.

As at Feb 19, 49 employees have lodged a report with the CPF Board regarding outstanding CPF contributions from November 2025.

The board had in January charged Little Professors in court over failing to pay CPF contributions. It said on Feb 20 that it is working with the relevant government agencies to address this matter.

MOE has filed a police report regarding anomalies in GIRO deductions reported by parents, who discovered that they had been double-charged for their children’s February student care fees.

Said Mrs Tan, who is also MOE’s director of schools: “We monitor (student care operators) for their quality of service provided to the schools, but we are working through whether or not there are other warning signals and warning systems that we can put in place for us to suss out some of these other areas that will impact the service delivery.”

The review will look at what had transpired with Little Professors, whether there are any aspects that need to be strengthened and how operators are appointed, she added.

“Will it be more stringent, or will there be other criteria that we put in? These are things that we are discussing at the moment,” she said, adding that it would be useful to include other agencies to close possible gaps in the process.

“We are in the process of learning from this incident, so that some of the things can be strengthened.”

Until a new operator is formally appointed, MOE said schools will deploy the required manpower for their student care services, and parents will not be charged for this after-school support.

Mrs Tan said potential student care service providers are chosen through GeBIZ, the Government’s e-procurement portal.

At the appointment stage, checks are done on the financial viability of the company, the type of programmes it offers, its staff strength and cost of services.

A contract for three years is typically offered, with an option to extend it for three more years.

While schools perform annual evaluations of appointed student care operators, their financial health is not part of this exercise. But moving forward, Mrs Tan said it will be a part of the review.

She added that MOE is also working with MOM and NTUC to extend support to Little Professors’ former employees as some of the schools have built strong relationships with them.

“It was very heartening to actually know from some of the principals that in spite of what happened, they (Little Professors’ staff) continued to go back to the school because they wanted to care for the children. And we are deeply appreciative of this,” she said.

She said that the agencies are looking at possible job matching for the former employees through manpower services, or rehiring them through the new operator.

Besides the director of Little Professors being uncontactable, its troubles had resulted in insufficient manpower to support the operations of student care centres in the eight affected schools, MOE had said.

Little Professors employees at the eight primary schools had received a message from the company on Feb 13 that their employment contract with it was no longer considered valid, and they could resign without serving notice.

At Jing Shan Primary, 10 teachers are deployed every day from 1.30pm to take over student care operations.

The school has 290 children enrolled in after-school care. Eighty of them are from the MOE kindergarten there and are enrolled in KCare.

Mrs Sharon Siew, principal of Jing Shan Primary, said with 90 teachers, it has nine teams it can rotate to manage after-school care until a new operator is hired. About six teachers from the kindergarten have also been roped in to help with KCare in the interim.

Little Professors was first appointed by MOE to run student care services in Punggol View Primary School in 2016. It is no longer operating there.

Its first contract to run student care centres in the eight affected schools, including White Sands Primary and Hong Wen School, was in 2021.

It also provided full-day care services to children in MOE kindergartens in six primary schools – Kranji, Anchor Green, Waterway, Punggol Cove, Jing Shan and Westwood.

Better oversight needed to restore trust, say parents

Four parents of children who are in student care at Jing Shan Primary told ST that they had noticed unauthorised GIRO deductions multiple times, dating back to 2024.

They include the latest occasion when full fees were deducted on Feb 1 and again on Feb 12.

A father of a Primary 2 pupil, who declined to be named, said he reported the matter to the police on Feb 12 and later discovered another deduction made earlier in July 2025.

He has also not been reimbursed for a one-month deposit paid at the start of 2026. He pays about $200 a month in fees.

“Most parents don’t keep track of GIRO deductions because they expect it to be done only once a month,” he said.

Another father, who wanted to be known only as Xiao Chen, said Little Professors made double deductions from his younger daughter’s Child Development Account in January and October 2024, and May and June 2025, amounting to $549.20.

In an e-mail seen by ST, an employee attributed the error to an “internal oversight”. Xiao Chen was given a refund in July 2025 after he noticed the deductions and contacted the company.

“We trusted them. They are an MOE-appointed vendor in an MOE school. I was really shocked that they could even double-charge CDA accounts,” he said.

A third parent, who wanted to be known only as Ms Katherine, said she discovered irregular and double deductions in July 2025 and reported the matter to the school then.

The mother of two daughters in student care hopes for more stringent checks of the next operator and greater financial transparency.