CRECHE FACILITIES FOR KAMPONG TIONG BAHRU (Sufficiency of)

Mr Ch'ng Jit Koon asked the Minister for Social Affairs, in view of the fact that the majority of the residents in Kampong Tiong Bahru are in the lower income group and require the facilities of a creche, if he plans to resite the creche at Moh Guan Terrace in Kampong Tiong Bahru and expanding its services; or, alternatively, if he will consider building a creche in Kampong Tiong Bahru.

The Minister for Social Affairs (Inche Othman Bin Wok): Mr Speaker, Sir, there are already adequate creche facilities, including a children's centre, in the Tiong Bahru and Kampong Tiong Bahru areas, which are, in fact, within the distance of approximately a mile of each other.

There is no plan to resite the creche at Moh Guan Terrace because it is rendering a valuable service to working mothers in the Tiong Bahru area as well as Kampong Tiong Bahru. This creche has a capacity of 40 children, and its average daily attendance is 30. If this creche at Mob Guan Terrace has to be moved elsewhere, especially out of Tiong Bahru itself, I am sure the Member for Tiong Bahru will agree with me that the many working mothers in Tiong Bahru will be greatly inconvenienced by being deprived of the necessary creche facilities.

While it is appreciated that some of the residents in Kampong Tiong Bahru may require the facilities of a creche, there already exists in the nearby Bukit Ho Swee estate a Government creche run by the Social Welfare Department. The Bukit Ho Swee creche, which has a capacity of 120 children, has at the moment, an average daily attendance of approximately one-half its total capacity. As this creche is in close proximity to Kampong Tiong Bahru, there should be no difficulty for any resident of Kampong Tiong Bahru estate to avail herself of the services of the Bukit Ho Swee creche. In fact, there are already 20 children from Kampong Tiong Bahru attending this creche daily. And since there are still many places in this creche for the children of Kampong Tiong Bahru, there is no plan at the moment to build another creche in Kampong Tiong Bahru.