Higher income ceiling for pre-school and childcare subsidies to benefit more than 60,000 families

SINGAPORE - To keep pre-school and childcare affordable for lower to middle income families, the gross monthly household income ceiling will be raised for the Kindergarten Fee Assistance Scheme (KiFAS) and the Infant and Childcare Additional Subsidy from January 2027.

With the ceiling raised from $12,000 to $15,000, more than 60,000 families with children enrolled in pre-schools are expected to benefit from more subsidies.

For example, a median income household earning $12,500, with two children in anchor-operator childcare, will see their total out-of-pocket fees for both children be reduced by 35 per cent, from $730 in 2026 to $470 in 2027.

Minister of State for Social and Family Development Goh Pei Ming gave details of the subsidies during the debate on MSF’s budget on March 6.

The Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) scheme will also be updated from January 2027, as announced in Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s Budget speech on Feb 12. This is to ensure lower and lower-middle income families whose earnings have grown in the past few years can still benefit from the subsidies.

The monthly income threshold to qualify for these subsidies will be increased from $4,500 to $6,500, along with higher caps across all subsidy tiers. This is expected to benefit around 13,000 students and their families, said Minister of State for Social and Family Development Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim in his speech.

MSF is also extending the maximum SCFA period from 24 months to 36 months, he said.

In 2025, the families of around 80,000 children received the additional subsidy for infant care and childcare, and 8,900 children were under KiFAS. Around 7,500 children received SCFA in 2025, MSF said in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Singapore has achieved its goal of ensuring that 80 per cent of pre-schoolers can have a place in a Government-supported pre-school. Singapore is also on track to add more than 40,000 full-day pre-school places in anchor operator pre-schools (AOPs) by 2029.

Since Jan 1, full-day childcare fees at AOPs and partner operator pre-schools have been reduced to $610 and $650 respectively. These pre-schools get government funding to keep fees low and have to adhere to a fee cap.

Mr Goh said the early education workforce will grow by another 3,500 educators by 2030 to meet sector needs, and that attracting and retaining quality educators remains a priority.

Responding to Mr Melvin Yong (Radin Mas), who called for greater support to be given to educators, Mr Goh acknowledged the challenges they face, including having little time to engage in tasks like lesson planning or relevant upskilling, given the long hours they spend caring for children.

MSF said it is reviewing educators’ working conditions and workload, such as measures to provide more time outside classrooms for non-teaching duties like lesson planning.

“We will also embark on a sector-wide job redesign project to review the job scopes, work processes and support structures in pre-schools, to improve work experiences,” said a spokesperson.

In a supplementary question, Mr Yong asked if the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) could adopt safeguards similar to those by the Ministry of Education, which in September 2024 said that teachers do not need to share personal phone numbers or respond to non-emergency work messages after school hours.

Mr Goh replied that the Government recognises the heavy workload and long hours put in by pre-school educators. “We want to formalise this, and we are starting with the co-creation of a parent-pre-school charter,” he said, adding that MSF will provide more details when ready.

ECDA will also work with the sector to strengthen pre-school quality over the next five years. This will be done through improving the capabilities of pre-schools, their curricula and programmes, deepening the skills of educators, and promoting research in the sector.

MSF and ECDA will also be refreshing the Early Childhood Industry Digital Plan (IDP), which was launched in 2021, to encourage digital transformation across the sector and raise productivity of operators and educators.

Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said ECDA will support pre-schools to adopt AI-enabled tools, which will help educators and leaders in tasks like curriculum planning, portfolio management, and reviewing CCTV footage.

“Ultimately, our goal is to ease our professionals’ workload, enhance their well-being, and improve care and education of our children,” he said.

The IDP 2.0 will be rolled out from the second half of 2026, and operators will need to meet a set of baseline technology requirements that cover key operations, like digital tools for attendance-taking and finance management.

These requirements will be introduced in phases, starting with larger operators from June 2027 and subsequently to the rest of the sector.

Under the plan, a new innovation seed funding initiative will support pilot projects and let operators test out new digital solutions before scaling them.

ECDA will also work with academic and industry partners like non-profit Association of Early Childhood and Training Services to do research and accelerate the adoption of technology and solutions.