Absenteeism Rate of Preschool Children in Bottom 20% of Socioeconomic Groups by Age and Ethnicity

Ms Mariam Jaafar asked the Minister for Social and Family Development what is the absenteeism rate of preschool children in the bottom 20% of socio-economic groups, broken down by (i) ages of four, five and six years old and (ii) ethnicity.

The Early Childhood Development Centres Act requires preschools to maintain daily records of children’s attendance. However, preschools are not required to submit attendance records for every child to the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and the requested information is thus not available.

Based on available data from a major Anchor Operator, the attendance rate of lower-income children is about 10 percentage points lower than their peers. This is why programmes like KidSTART and Community Link work closely with preschools to support lower-income families with young children, to address barriers to children’s regular preschool attendance.

The Government will continue to invest in efforts to improve preschool enrolment and attendance, to give every child a good start. As part of these efforts, ECDA is working with Anchor Operators on regular submission of attendance records of all enrolled children.