Funding Criteria for Anchor and Partner Operator Preschools, and Proportion of Non-citizen and Non-PR Enrolment

20 Mr Kenneth Tiong Boon Kiat asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the basis for ECDA's sizing of operator-level funding for Anchor and Partner Operator preschools; (b) whether enrolment is a criterion; (c) if so, whether non-citizen and non-permanent resident (PR) children count toward enrolment; (d) what proportion of enrolment in the past three years have been non-citizens and non-PRs; and (e) whether the Ministry will restrict operator-level subsidies to citizen and PR enrolment.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: The Early Childhood Development Agency funds Anchor Operator (AOP) and Partner Operator (POP) preschools to improve affordability and quality. Funding is sized based on the number of children enrolled, adherence to fee caps, achievement of quality benchmarks and the provision of competitive salaries for preschool educators.

While AOP and POP preschools welcome children of all nationalities, Government funding for these preschools is designed primarily to benefit Singaporean children and their families. Therefore, the citizenship of enrolled children is taken into consideration in the grant design and requirements. Non-resident children make up a very small proportion of less than 5% of total enrolment in these preschools.