SINGAPORE - Parents and educators of pre-school children were heartened by measures announced on Saturday to lower fees and increase teachers’ salaries at government-supported centres.
M.Y World @ Bukit Batok West Quarry principal Devaki Ramu, 34, said she was thrilled to hear that educators in the five anchor operators will get a 10 to 30 per cent pay bump in the next two years. She said: “This might attract more trained staff back into the sector and will encourage more people from different sectors to make the switch to undertake the meaningful work with children.”
The sector’s attrition rate has stood at about 10 to 15 per cent over the last few years.
PCF Sparkletots learning support educator Janice Tan, 33, said she was very happy and heartened by the move.
Ms Tan, who made the switch to early childhood education from optometry about eight years ago, said: “In the past, my mother, who was in the industry herself, tried to tell me not to join largely because of the (low) pay...
“But now as the sector develops, there are a lot more specialised roles and improved frameworks to advance the industry as a whole... I’m glad the pay for early childhood educators will be raised.”
The raft of measures to boost early childhood education was announced by Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli on Saturday at the Early Childhood Celebrations at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, an event combining several award presentations across the sector.
Salaries are set to go up to between $2,900 and $6,600 by 2024, depending on the educator’s experience, skills and work performance, and starting pay for fresh graduates will increase from about $2,600 to at least $2,800.
Anchor operators – which receive government funding to keep costs affordable – currently employ more than 40 per cent of the pre-school workforce. They are PCF Sparkletots, My First Skool, M.Y World, Skool4Kidz and E-Bridge Pre-School.
Meanwhile, with a lower cap on pre-school fees, parents will pay less to government-supported operators – which provide about 60 per cent of the 200,000 pre-school places here. The fees will fall by $40 for full-day childcare and infant care.
Senior master planner in the manufacturing industry Teo Lai Soon, 38, who has a two-year-old daughter in childcare, said the lowered fee cap will help offset rising household expenses, especially with the goods and services tax set to rise by 1 percentage point from next year.
Madam Syafiqah Salleh, 29, also welcomed the lower fees.
She had enrolled her two children, aged two and four years old, in childcare in My First Skool when she and her husband, 31, were both working.
But Madam Syafiqah has since stopped work as a process technician to look after her two children. She said: “With inflation, every cent counts, and with two kids in childcare, this will save us about $70 a month.”
