Student care operator Little Professors under probe by authorities over unpaid salaries of 54 staff
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Little Professors run student care centres in at least eight primary schools, including Kranji Primary, White Sands Primary and Hong Wen School.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
- Little Professors Learning Centre staff allege unpaid January salaries and CPF since Nov 2025; parents report double GIRO charges for fees.
- MOE terminated Little Professors’ services due to "contractual breaches", providing temporary after-school support for students.
- Little Professors runs student care centres in at least eight primary schools, including Kranji Primary, White Sands Primary and Hong Wen School.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – Fifty-four employees have lodged reports over unpaid salaries from student care provider Little Professors Learning Centre, which is being investigated by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for possible offences under the Employment Act.
The staff allege that the company, which runs student care centres in at least eight primary schools, had not paid their January salaries and CPF contributions since November 2025.
In a joint statement on the night of Feb 14, MOM, the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board said the staff had filed claims at TADM from January to February.
Nineteen employees have also lodged a report with the CPF Board for outstanding contributions detected in December 2025. The Board has taken prosecution action against Little Professors, with the case currently before the courts.
In a statement on Feb 14, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said it terminated Little Professors’ service for the eight schools on the same day due to “contractual breaches”. It has also filed a police report regarding “observed anomalies” in GIRO deductions reported by parents.
The police confirmed that reports were lodged and investigations are ongoing.
In a media statement on Feb 14, Mr Harry Lee, president of the Education Services Union (ESU), said it is also looking into the case. Little Professors is a non-unionised company.
ESU and NTUC are working with the affected members to assess whether short-term financial relief and job referrals can be provided within ESU’s network, he said.
Several parents have also discovered that they had been double-charged via GIRO deductions for their children’s February student care fees.
Little Professors runs student care centres in schools including White Sands Primary and Hong Wen School.
It also provides full-day care services for children in MOE kindergartens located in six primary schools – Kranji, Anchor Green, Waterway, Punggol Cove, Jing Shan and Westwood – according to the schools’ websites. The service is called Kindergarten Care (KCare).
In response to The Sunday Times’ queries, MOE said it is aware of the company’s operational issues that surfaced in the past week, including the non-payment of employees’ salaries, and the director of the company being uncontactable.
These issues have resulted in insufficient manpower to support the operations of student care centres in the eight affected schools, it said.
MOE said it worked with these schools over the past week to arrange for manpower to ensure that after-school care and KCare operations could continue. This includes the provision of meals and snacks, and supervising homework.
Until a new operator is formally appointed, schools will continue to deploy the required manpower for their student care services, and parents will not be charged for this after-school support.
MOE staff are also reaching out to the families of affected pupils over the weekend to update them on the interim arrangements.
On Feb 12, ST spoke to three Little Professors staff. All of them stopped working on Feb 10, after the company failed to pay their January salary, which was due on Feb 7.
The staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their CPF contributions were previously also delayed in September 2025, and have remained unpaid since November 2025.
One of them, from the student care centre at Anchor Green Primary, said she contacted the company’s human resources team on Feb 9, but received no explanation for the payment delays.
In a WhatsApp message seen by ST, the HR team told employees on Feb 9 that it was “working on the issue” and to continue reporting to work as operations would carry on.
The next message staff received was on Feb 13, when employees were told that the company had met MOM that day, which was working with MOE to investigate the issue.
“At this point, the boss/director remains uncontactable and HQ is therefore unable to provide any payment timeline or deadline,” the message read.
It added that MOM advises affected employees to file an employment claim with TADM, which the staff member proceeded to do.
The message informed employees that their employment contract with Little Professors was no longer considered valid, and they could resign without serving notice.
TADM has since responded to her and other employees on Feb 13, asking them to attend a mediation session on March 6, she said.
ST has contacted Little Professors for comment.
Business records as at Feb 9 show that the company was set up on Sept 2, 2013. Its registered office address in Jurong West was closed when ST visited on Feb 14, and another education company appeared to occupy the same space.
Mr Lee said that ESU will work with TADM and relevant government agencies to provide support for the affected workers.
“Our priority is to ensure that the workers receive the assistance they need during this period,” he said, adding that ESU will give further updates when appropriate.
The staff member said school leaders at Anchor Green Primary have been “very understanding” about the situation and the difficulties she and her five colleagues were facing. “We briefed the school teachers about our routines, and they have since taken over,” she said.
Mrs Clara Tan, 38, whose Primary 3 son attends the student care programme at Anchor Green Primary, said she was shocked to hear from him that the school staff had taken over.
“He said the principal, vice-principal and teachers had taken over the serving of food and care of the children in student care,” said Mrs Tan.
The civil servant said the GIRO deduction for the monthly fees of $250 was processed twice in February, on Feb 1 and Feb 12.
This is not the first time it has happened. Her account was charged twice in June and September 2025, and three times in October.
“All those times, the company reimbursed us quickly. But now they are not responding, and they are still holding on to our deposit of $250, which I don’t know if we will get back,” she said.
Two Little Professors employees said the school they were based in has asked them to return, citing appreciation for the student care staff’s work.
“The school said it has informed MOE, and they are looking for a third party to take over, so that we can join them and return to the school,” said one of the employees.
Employees who need help can contact TADM at tal.sg/tadm/ contact-us,
“All employers must pay salaries and CPF contributions on time to their employees,” said the joint response by MOM, the CPF Board and TADM.
Employees in Singapore who are not paid salaries on time can file claims with TADM, which will help them in recovering salaries either through mediation or by referring the case to the Employment Claims Tribunals.
