Financial Assistance for School Canteen Operators Given Home-based Learning

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Education with school terms affected by home-based learning (a) what financial assistance is given to school canteen operators who are forced to shut during the school closures; (b) what is the total number of school canteen stall-holders currently; and (c) since 2020, how many stall holders have given up their stall licences.

To support school canteen operators whose businesses may have been affected by safe management measures arising from the COVID-19 situation, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has been granting rental waivers for the affected periods, in line with the rental waivers provided for qualifying tenants in commercial properties owned by Government agencies at the national level in 2020 and 2021.

In 2020, MOE granted a four-month rental waiver for the months of April to August 2020. This excluded the month of May, which was the designated school holiday period in 2020. For 2021, we have granted two months of rental waiver for the months of May and July 2021, during Phase Two (Heightened Alert), and will be extending another half-month of rental waiver in October as part of the Government's support for sectors affected by the recent tightened measures.

Today, there are about 2,380 school canteen stallholders across our Government and Government-aided schools, a slight decrease from the 2,410 in 2020.

Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister of State for the answer. I have got two supplementary questions.

One is that I am happy that the Minister of State mentioned that the rental waivers are being provided to the stallholders. But my question, first, is, how many school canteen assistants are affected by the school HBLs and the ensuing stall closures? I have been approached by a number of our residents who are school canteen assistants, which are probably slightly more than the school stallholders.

The second question is, what form of assistance can we provide for them to access CRGTs and other assistance, if possible, especially for the school canteen assistants, who could be residents of some of us here in the Chamber?

I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. School canteen operators are considered self-employed persons and the school canteen assistants employed by the operators are also considered for COVID-19 Recovery Grant (CRG) if they meet the qualifying criteria. So, to answer the Member's question, both the canteen operators as well as the assistants that they employ can qualify for CRG if they meet the qualifying criteria. I hope that addresses his questions.