CHILDCARE CENTRES

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CHILDCARE CENTRES: 8.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) whether he will give an update on the progress made after the announcement in March this year to enhance the supply, accessibility, quality and affordability of childcare centres; (b) how has the Ministry ensured that childcare fees remain affordable, especially when some operators have increased their fees following an increase in subsidy; and (c) how many couples have made use of the Baby Bonus scheme to defray the cost of centre-based child care and kindergarten fees and to date, what is the total amount disbursed for this purpose.

The Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, MCYS is in the process of enhancing the supply, accessibility, quality and affordability of childcare centres.

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With regard to availability and accessibility, my Ministry has drawn up a plan to facilitate the setting up of 200 new childcare centres within the next five years. This will bring the number of centres from 739 centres in January 2008 to about 940 centres in five years' time.

These centres will add to the number of centres in HDB estates and near transport nodes to make it even more accessible and convenient for parents. We are currently working closely with HDB and other relevant agencies to facilitate the setting up of these centres. The sites will be released progressively in phases to commercial providers and voluntary welfare organisations.

As for quality, we have been working together with the Ministry of Education to introduce higher educational and qualification requirement for pre-school teachers. We are raising the minimum qualification for new teachers and supervisors to five GCE 'O' level credits, including the English Language, and a Diploma in Pre-School Teaching. Incumbent teachers teaching K1 and K2 must obtain a Diploma in Pre-School Teaching and an 'O' level pass in English or pass in English Language proficiency test by January 2013.

To help achieve these standards, MCYS will be offering scholarships and bursaries for childcare personnel to pursue Early Childhood Diploma and Degree courses. We will also ensure that there are sufficient training places for existing and new teachers on both full-time and part-time basis, in order to meet the increasing demand for pre-school teachers in the coming years.

We are aware that a number of centres have increased or will be increasing fees. Some centres need to do so in order to meet the rising costs of

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living and the higher requirements for teacher qualification. Nevertheless, my Ministry strongly urges operators to exercise restraint and to keep their services affordable for parents. The Ministry's plan to increase the number of childcare centres in the near future will bring about more competition. And this competition will help moderate fees at an affordable level. It will also provide more choices for parents.

The revised Marriage and Parenthood (MNP) package announced this August reaffirmed the Government's commitment to keep childcare fees affordable. We have enhanced the childcare subsidy from $150 a month to $300 a month, with effect from 17th August 2008.

This helps to ensure that fees remain affordable to parents.

On top of this, the ComCare Centre-based Financial Assistance scheme for Childcare (CFAC) will provide the necessary assistance for low-income families. The scheme will enable such families to put the child into a childcare centre at a very affordable cost, provided the parents are willing to work.

Besides what I have mentioned, the Government will also provide recurrent grants to eligible not-for-profit childcare centre operators, so that they can serve as anchor-operators and set the benchmark for quality and affordability in the sector. These recurrent grants will be provided on top of existing assistance, such as facility conversion subsidies and subsidised rental, which are given to VWO childcare operators. More details on this recurrent grant scheme will be announced before the end of this year.

For the utilisation of the Children Development Account (CDA), as at July 2008, about 39% (38,000) of the 98,080 CDA accounts have been used by parents to pay fees at licensed childcare centres,

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while 35% (about 34,000) have been used to pay fees at kindergartens. Since we introduced the scheme in 2001, the total amount of CDA funds disbursed for such purposes is about $385 million. The Government is still looking into ways and means to help parents put their children in childcare.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): I would like to thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive reply. I have three questions to ask.

Firstly, the quality of childcare centres depends a lot on the quality of the staff but, at the same time, the salary and working conditions of childcare staff are low, therefore making it difficult for the industry to attract good quality childcare staff. Could the MOS share with this House what measures are being considered to improve the salary and working conditions of childcare staff, so as to improve the quality of childcare centres?

Secondly, as we all know, infant care fees continue to remain high despite the higher subsidy given by the Government. Are there any additional assistance that the Ministry is planning to introduce to assist parents with infants and encourage people to have more children?

Thirdly, could the MOS also share with us whether the five years' timeline is realistic, or whether – considering that we want people to have more children – the Ministry should consider a shorter timeline?

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: Mr Speaker, Sir, on how to help the early childhood personnel improve their working conditions, as I have mentioned earlier, the Government is looking into a recurrent grant to help to make sure that operators,

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which are non-profit, pay their staff a reasonable pay.

The subsidy for an individual child has also increased tremendously from $150 to $300, and $400 to $600 for infant care. The Government would look into the working conditions of this group of people. We will find anchor operators like NTUC – I am sure Members know – which is one of the very successful cooperatives in early childhood education. So we hope that, with the support of NTUC, we can also improve the working conditions of these people.

For infant care, we do agree that it is very expensive. Therefore, it has been increased from $400 to $600 per child per month. I also mentioned that for the low-income group, from this year onwards, we will increase the income level from $1,500 to $1,800. I think Mdm Halimah had requested for it at the Budget debate. We have raised this low-income level cap to $1,800, after consideration, so that we can cover quite a number of families. The highest subsidy, on top of the $300 for the bigger children, the $600 for the infant care and the additional help from CFAC, can go up to approximately $340 a month. So, some of the families only pay as low as 10% or even 5%. We will try our best and look at how to improve the fees or how to help the early childhood personnel, especially the infant care segment.

With regard to the timing of the five-year plan, I think, with the help of the anchor operators, starting with 50 centres a year, it should be achievable. The more difficult part is not the hardware but the training of the teacher. So I agree with Mdm Halimah that improving the working conditions and attracting good people, especially the 'O' level graduates, to join this service is something that we need to work harder on.

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): One supplementary question, Sir. I have

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looked at this industry and realised that there is a concern from the perspective of the practitioners in early childhood. The image is a concern. So I would like to ask if there are any plans – like what MOE does to improve the image of teachers and the professionals in the education sector – to improve it to a point where the attractiveness of this industry will also become as good as them, and create the career development of pre-school sector on par with the normal education sector.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon: Over the last few years, we have improved a lot on the Government subsidy and grant and, also, the training criteria for this sector.

I should say that we still need some time to improve the image. But in the private sector, some operators have obtained really highly qualified teachers who are Degree holders or even Master Degree holders. I urge all the operators to bear in mind how to run effectively and improve their own image. Based on our experience, about 70% are run by private operators, and only 30% are run by VWOs. And for the 60% run by private sector, a majority of them do attract Degree holders. So, therefore, the Ministry is also going to target the different groups and help them improve their image.