Take-up Rate and Affordability of After-school Student Care Centres

15 Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Education (Schools) (a) what is the current capacity and take-up rate of after-school student care centres; (b) how does the Ministry continuously ensure that student care remains affordable; and (c) whether there are plans to set minimum operating standards for after-school care.

The Minister for Education (Schools) (Mr Ng Chee Meng): Mr Speaker, over the last six years, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has increased the number of school-based Student Care Centres (SCCs) from 50 to 162. Their enrolment has increased from 3,000 in 2012 to 21,000 today, or 9% of all primary school students. Where there is demand for school-based student care services, schools will work closely with the service providers to expand their capacity at a pace that does not compromise quality. MOE is on track to have SCCs in all our primary schools by end 2020.

There are also SCCs outside of schools that provide after-school care for students. Currently, there are 261 community-based SCCs registered with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), with a total enrolment of about 11,000 students, and with some spare capacity. Together, MOE and MSF monitor the capacities and enrolment of both school-based and community-based SCCs closely.

To ensure affordability for children from lower-income families, the ComCare Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) scheme provides needy families with assistance to offset their monthly SCC fees. With the assistance, eligible students can pay as little as $5 per month. MSF regularly reviews the ComCare SCFA scheme to ensure that student care remains affordable for lower-income families.

All registered SCCs are required to comply with requirements covering areas like supervision, safety, health and hygiene. In addition, for school-based SCCs, the service providers are selected via a stringent and competitive procurement process and have to meet contractual requirements for quality in areas, such as programmes, staff training, level of care and environment. Schools maintain close oversight of SCC operations to ensure that quality is maintained.

Mr Speaker: Mr Desmond Choo.

Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. Just one point of clarification. There has been feedback from parents, especially in schools whereby there are younger parents and more children, that some schools have to prioritise the after-school student care for the lower primary students. This has caused some inconvenience, especially when they have two or more children in school and one of them has to go into the private space. Can I check with the Minister if the plan is to cater capacity for all levels of primary school students?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for his question. The size of the waitlist for primary schools varies for different schools. But on average, the number of waitlisted students is low. Where there is excess demand, schools will work with the SCC operators to see how we can expand the number of classrooms to cater for this enrolment demand.

Having said that, it is with the caveat that this expansion does not compromise the quality of student care. As I have said in the reply earlier, MOE has expanded the student care facilities quite tremendously in the last few years. So, while we cater to the quantity of students needing the care, we want to ensure that the quality is built up correspondingly as well.

Mr Speaker: Dr Intan Mokhtar.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): May I ask the Minister whether there are plans to have a standard framework for after-school care centres, similar to what we have for childcare centres, which is the SPARK certification framework, to ensure that there are certain standards of operation, as well as standards pertaining to the personnel who take care of these student care centres?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: I thank the Member for her question. Indeed, the SCC programmes are well-planned. In the midst of building up these student care centres, we ensure the quality and, therefore, the overall standards, whether it is environment, hygiene, even some of the programmes. To uplift the quality of SCC staff, MOE, MSF and Workforce Development Agency ‒ now, Workforce Singapore ‒ have introduced a 40-hour training programme for new and untrained SCC staff. This course is currently undertaken by Ngee Ann Polytechnic and was launched in 2015. So far, it has trained about 622 staff to date. With these training programmes, we hope to uplift and upkeep standards.