Grants for Fees for Faith-based Pre-schools Run by Non-profit Organisations

13 Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry will consider providing grants for fees for faith-based pre-schools run by non-profit organisations such as those by churches, mosques and voluntary welfare organisations.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Mr Speaker, the Government's priority is to ensure that parents have access to quality and affordable pre-schools for their children. We seek to achieve this by providing support to both parents and operators.

Today, parents can tap on the Baby Bonus Cash Gift, as well as the Child Development Account First Step grant of $3,000 and further matched savings, to offset their children's preschool fees. In addition, all enrolled Singaporean children in childcare centres receive a Basic Subsidy of up to $300 per month, while those from lower to middle income households are eligible for an Additional Subsidy of up to $440 per month. This applies to children enrolled in all childcare centres, including those run by faith-affiliated operators, non-profit organisations or commercial entities.

Apart from subsidies, the Government provides broad-based funding support which is available to all operators to help them raise the quality of their pre-schools. This includes the Professional Development Programmes which all pre-schools can tap on to upskill their educators, as well as grants to improve productivity through technology solutions and to foster more innovative teaching practices. In addition, we support eligible operators under the Anchor Operator (AOP) and Partner Operator (POP) schemes with recurrent funding to uplift pre-school quality while providing affordable options. These include some operators from not-for-profit and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs).

We also provide targeted support through the VWO Development Grant, a capital grant extended to affordable, quality not-for-profit pre-schools. All pre-schools can also tap on the Pre-school Opportunity Fund, which provides funding support for pre-school programmes that provide holistic development opportunities for lower-income children. Of the 180 pre-schools supported under these two schemes, about a third are faith-based.

The Government will continue to review policies to improve access to quality and affordable pre-schools across the sector, so that every child can have a good start in life.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the reply. I am assured that there are sufficient subsidies and grants available for both students and staff in the pre-school sector. I do recognise that AOPs, POPs and MOE Kindergartens (MKs) are there to help and expand the pre-school sector and engage that there are quality education. However, kindergartens run by faith-based organisations do serve a specific segment of our society, particularly parents who are looking for certain value-based systems that they want to enrol their children in.

So, I hope that MSF would also consider expanding the KiFAS to all children, regardless of which pre-school centre or kindergarten that they enrol in, very much like how the Edusave accounts is made available to Primary school and Secondary school students, regardless of which school they enrol in.

And, can I also clarify that the Opportunity Fund is available even to students who are enrolled in kindergartens run by faith-based organisations?

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Sir, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. Indeed, the pre-school sector remains diverse, comprising commercial, not-for-profit, faith-affiliated and MOE-run pre-schools, each with their own value propositions. And with these, parents continue to have choice in selecting a suitable pre-school for their children.

The Kindergarten Fee Assistance Scheme at this moment, is provided to support lower and middle income families in the AOPs and MKs which are generally fee-controlled. So, this, as the Member mentioned earlier, is part of our strategy to provide parents with quality and affordable kindergarten places.

And relating to the Opportunity Fund that the Member asked, all non-AOP pre-school operators, including not-for-profit and faith-affiliated kindergartens, can tap on the Pre-school Opportunity Fund. It essentially is to support their enrolled children from less advantaged or at-risk backgrounds.

Nevertheless, we feel that kindergartens continue to play a very important role in offering pre-school programmes to parents who do not need full-day care for their children. Currently, we are reviewing the pre-school subsidies to ensure that every child has access to affordable and quality pre-school education.

I would like to thank the Member for the suggestion. We will take that into consideration and we will provide an update on the review when it is completed.