Preschool in Singapore

A pre-school, also known as kindergarten or child care centres in Singapore, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school. All Singapore Citizens born after 1 January 1996 and living in Singapore must attend a national primary school unless an exemption is granted.

A preschool may be publicly or privately operated, and may be subsidized from public funds such as The Baby Bonus Fund.

Regulated by ECDA

All Pre-Schools in Singapore are required to obtain license under the Early Childhood Development Centres Act 2017.

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), an autonomous agency jointly overseen by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), and hosted under the Ministry of Social and Family Development, serves as the regulatory and developmental authority for the early childhood sector in Singapore, overseeing key aspects of children's development below the age of 7, across both kindergartens and child care centres.

Pre-School Subsidies

If a Child Care Centre is licensed by ECDA, or Kindergarten that is registered with ECDA/Committee for Private Education (CPE), it is considered as an Approved Institution (AI) under the Baby Bonus Scheme.

List of AI can be found on Singapore government website.

Singaporean with Child Development Account (CDA) set up will be able to use the First Step grant ($3,000) to pay for educational and healthcare expenses of all their children immediately.

Basic Subsidy

If a child is a Singapore Citizen and is enrolled in an ECDA-licensed infant care/ child care centre in Singapore, he/she qualifies for Basic Subsidy. If the mother is a working mum (working at least 56 hours per month), the amount is S$600 (Infant Care) and S$300 (Child Care). If the mother is not working (working less than 56 hours per month), the amount is S$150 (Infant Care) and S$150 (Child Care).

Additional Subsidy

In addition to Basic Subsidy, a working mum with Singaporean child enrolled in ECDA-licensed centres will qualify for up to S$440 Additional Subsidy, if their total gross monthly income (including bonuses, commissions, overtime pay, allowances and before CPF deduction) earned by mum and her spouse is less than S$7,500 per month. The income of family members included in the application will also be factored into the total gross monthly income if applying through Per Capita Income.

At the National Day Rally on Sunday (18 August 2019), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the authorities would raise the income ceiling from S$7,500 to S$12,000 for families seeking to qualify for more preschool subsidies in year 2020.

Full-Fledged Pre-School Professional

Pre-School teachers in Singapore need to equip themselves with relevant certification from the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC) or WSQ certification in order to qualify as a full-fledged pre-school professional.

Types of Childcare Centres

There are 3 types of childcare centres in Singapore: Premium, Anchor Operators and Partner Operators.

Premium

Premium operators are private-run childcare centres.

Anchor Operators

Anchor operators are private-run childcare centres. This makes them similar to premium childcare centres. The main difference is that anchor operators receive funding support from government to keep its monthly fees at a cap of $720, $1,275 and $160 (excluding GST) for full-day child care, full-day infant care and kindergarten respectively. They are funded by the Anchor Operator Scheme (AOP).

In 2014, five AOPs were selected and received funding support till 2018, which was then extended to 2022. They are: PCF SPARKLETOTS PRESCHOOL, MY FIRST SKOOL, MY WORLD PRESCHOOL, SKOOL4KIDZ, E-BRIDGE PRE-SCHOOL.

Partner Operators

Partner operators function in the same manner as anchor operators. For partner operators, they receive funding under The Partner Operator Scheme (POP). Partner Operators monthly cap is of $800 and $1,400 (excluding GST) for full-day child care and infant care programme respectively, $600 and $1,000 for half-day child care and infant care programme respectively for Singapore Citizen children.

They receive funding support from Year 2016 – 2020. The list of POPs can be found on ECDA website.

Child Care/Day Care Centres

Childcare (also known as daycare) centres provide child care services and pre-school developmental programmes for children aged from 18 months to children below 7 years old. Several centres also provide infant care programmes for infants aged from 2 to 18 months old. Childcare centres provide full-day and half-day care programmes to children below the age of seven, in addition to education programmes.

Kindergartens

Kindergartens provide pre-school developmental programmes for children aged about 2 years to children below 7 years of age. The programmes comprise at least Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2. In addition, kindergartens may also provide programmes for Playgroup, Pre-Nursery (or Nursery 1), and Nursery (or Nursery 2) five days a week. Most kindergarten sessions range between 2 and 3 hours for Playgroup and Pre-Nursery, and between 3 and 4 hours for Nursery and Kindergartens 1 & 2.

MOE Kindergarten

There are 23 MOE kindergartens. Six more will open in 2020, which means a total of 29 MOE kindergartens will be participating in 2019 registration exercise. The ministry plans to run a total of 50 such centres by 2023. Top priority for admissions go to Singaporean children from lower-income households living within 1 km of the MOE kindergarten.

See also

• Education in Singapore
• List of international schools in Singapore