Steps to boost attendance rates of pre-school kids from lower-income families

To tackle issue, selected pre-schools run by anchor operators will get more funding

- Syarafana Shafeeq

Being overwhelmed with other priorities like work, dealing with children's poor behaviour and logistical challenges are hurdles that lower-income families face when trying to maintain their children's attendance rates in pre-school.

From the second quarter of 2024, selected pre-schools run by anchor operators will get more funding from the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) to help children from these families improve their attendance and boost learning support.

The issue of pre-school attendance for children from lower-income families was identified as a work in progress by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) during its budget debate in March.

Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli had said in Parliament that children from lower-income families enrolled in anchor operator preschools have a monthly attendance rate of about 72 per cent, lower than the 79 per cent attendance rate of their middle-income peers.

The extra resources received by selected anchor operators can be used to support operating costs or additional manpower to monitor children's attendance and help parents to address the challenges that they face in sending their children to pre-school regularly.

There are currently five anchor operators in Singapore PCF Sparkletots Preschool, My First Skool, M.Y World Preschool, Skool4Kidz and E-Bridge Preschool. Anchor operators are preschool operators that receive funding from the Government to keep their fees at a certain cap to ensure affordability.

NTUC First Campus' My First Skool, which serves 27,000 children in 158 centres, said the attendance rate of its pupils from low-income families is similar to what Mr Masagos mentioned in Parliament on March 6.

At E-Bridge Pre-school, about 10 per cent of its children are from lower-income backgrounds. It serves more than 5,000 children in 24 centres.