Number of Preschools that Offer Care Services Beyond 7.00 pm

2 Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how many preschools currently offer extended care services beyond 7pm on weekdays and whether this number has increased compared to five years ago; and (b) what specific alternative care arrangements are available for parents who do not have flexible work arrangements, live-in domestic helpers or familial support to pick up their children by 7.00 pm.

The Minister of State for Social and Family Development (Mr Goh Pei Ming) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): To cater to the needs of working parents, preschools providing full-day services are required to operate from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm on weekdays. Preschools have the flexibility to extend their services beyond the standard operating hours, based on factors such as parental demand and the availability of resources, such as manpower. Today, around 20 preschools operate beyond 7.00 pm on weekdays. This is a decrease from 40 preschools in 2021.

We recognise the challenges that parents face in balancing their caregiving and work commitments. For parents who require additional caregiving support outside of the standard preschool operating hours, there are alternative options available. These include paid and community-based options, such as babysitting services.

To support parents in accessing flexible work arrangements (FWA), the Government has worked closely with tripartite partners to encourage employers to provide a family-friendly work environment. This includes the launch of the Tripartite Guidelines on FWA requests in 2024. The guidelines set out the process for employees to formally request for FWAs, and employers to consider them and aim to better support working parents in their caregiving needs.

Mr Speaker: Mr Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Sir, for a worker finishing work at 6.00 pm in the Central Business District and reaching a heartlands preschool by 7.00 pm is often a logistical impossibility, unless they take taxis every day. And since the work inflexibility, commuting costs and the lack of domestic help disproportionately affect lower- and middle-income parents, does the Minister of State agree that rigid cut-off times could exacerbate social inequality?

I have some suggestions. To avoid teacher burn-out, would the Ministry consider requiring one's preschool per HDB estate to offer care until 7.30 pm, staffed by ancillary care assistants? This could provide a safe environment for dinner and unstructured play without increasing the workload of core educators.

And secondly, has the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) conducted a proactive survey to gauge the actual interest in extended hours? Without this, we cannot assume that demand is low, just simply because parents may have simply resigned themselves to the current reality and are making career sacrifices in order to cope.

Mr Goh Pei Ming: Speaker, I thank the Member for his questions. I think the first point with regard to employees ending at 6.00 pm and having to make it to the preschool to pick up their children, I empathise and I understand that some employees, some parents will face that constraint. Which is why I think the emphasis on flexible work arrangements is all the more important. I think we want to get to a state whereby the relationship and the common understanding between employers and employees, as a society, is as such – that we do support the caregiving needs of all our working adults, especially working parents. So, I wish to double down on the need and the emphasis on flexible work arrangements.

I thank the Member for his suggestion of setting a preschool per estate that operates on extended hours. I do not think ECDA or the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) will have a firm view either way on this. I think the key thing here is that the decision to extend operating hours is a business decision that we have left to the preschool operators. The preschools today are actually free to charge. They are available and they are allowed to charge for the extra hours beyond 7.00 pm, depending. This is because we understand and we recognise that for the preschools to run beyond the operating hours, there will be additional demands on them, staffing requirements, additional resources, costs. And therefore, they can charge.

However, we have not seen that. The data over the last five years bears itself that the number of preschools offering that has actually come down, which may suggest that there may not be a demand for that. And I will highlight that 20 preschools is actually lesser than the number of constituencies that we have.

I think the decrease, based on what ECDA understands, can be due to a variety of factors. First, of course, there may be lower parental demand. It may be the case, as we have observed, that flexible arrangements is setting in. More parents do get those flexible arrangements from their employers and therefore, there is not such a need for that. The preschools may also face very real manpower constraints, such as preschool educators themselves or educators themselves having to go back to their own families and their own children at 7.00 pm.

Another reason may also be because parents themselves recognise that is important for them to spend enough time with their children and not leave the children in the preschools for too long a period. I reference a study made in 2024. This is the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG LEADS) that found that the longer the children stayed in preschools before 40 hours and significantly beyond, we start to observe that their literacy, their numeracy achievements do have some impact. And I think generally, parents do recognise that too many hours in the preschool is not a good thing. More family time is useful.

From MSF's perspective, we strongly encourage our parents to spend enough quality time with their children.