Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports whether the Ministry will consider providing and running childcare centres at affordable cost to Singaporeans with heavy subsidy from the Government so as to standardise service levels and ensure affordability to encourage procreation.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: Today, childcare services are provided by more than 900 centres, operated by private operators and Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs). This variety allows centres to offer a range of programmes to cater to the diverse needs of families.

Page: 101

All childcare centres have to meet MCYS' licensing standards in order to operate. Teachers' academic qualifications and professional training standards are also regulated. To raise the quality of programmes, MOE has introduced the Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework (SPARK) for kindergarten level programmes and MCYS launched the Early Years Development Framework last year to guide programmes for younger children aged 0-3.

To ensure that quality childcare services remain affordable, we support parents through the universal childcare subsidy and the Baby Bonus scheme. A total of $209 million was disbursed in universal childcare subsidies in FY 2011. Lower income families can receive additional help through the ComCare childcare and kindergarten assistance schemes.

Annexes

Page: 102

Annex to Speech by the Minister for Law

Page: 107

Annex to Written Answer to Question No. 4

Page: 108

Annex to Written Answer to Question No. 4