Amount of Grant and Subsidies Given to PAP Community Foundation for Set-up and Operation of Childcare Centres and Kindergartens

Mr Png Eng Huat asked the Minister for Social and Family Development for the past five years, what is the amount of grant and subsidies given to PAP Community Foundation for the set-up and operation of its childcare centres and kindergartens.

Mr Speaker, the Government is committed to enhancing access to affordable and quality pre-schools. To achieve this, the Government funds operators through the Anchor Operator and Partner Operator schemes and runs MOE Kindergartens. There are currently five Anchor Operators, including PAP Community Foundation (PCF) Sparkletots pre-school.

Government grants are provided to Anchor Operators in return for them adhering to fee caps for the pre-school places they provide, plus significant demands on efforts to improve quality and invest in teacher development. In addition, Anchor Operators offer Chinese, Malay and Tamil language instruction, and support enrolment of children from low-income families.

The amount of Government grants provided to each Anchor Operator generally depends on the number of places and types of services provided by the Operator. As the size of Anchor Operators varies substantially, it is more meaningful to look at the amount of grants provided to each Singapore Citizen (SC) child enrolled in each Anchor Operator.

From 2014 to 2018, the average amount of grants provided for each SC child enrolled in PCF Sparkletots translated to about $3,500 per year. For comparison, the corresponding average figure across all Anchor Operators during the same period was about $4,300.

Thank you, Sir. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the reply. Does the Ministry have the actual amount that was given to PAP Community Foundation kindergarten? The subsidy that was given to them for the last five years, as listed in the question?

My second question is what is the Government's view on allowing these state-subsidised facility to be used for political activities like Meet-the-People sessions (MPS) and all that?

Sir, as I mentioned in my answer earlier, the grant amount per enrolled Singapore Citizen child, where I think that it is more meaningful, as the amount of Government grants provided to each AOP, as I said, generally depends on the number of places and types of services provided by the operator. As the Member can see, the size of AOPs as well as the size of centres vary substantially. If the Member is aware and he goes on the ground, he would understand what I am trying to say, whereby behind the scenes. there are many differences. So, it is more meaningful for us to look at what I have shared earlier.

For his second question, Sir, I think a lot have been discussed in this House on the question that he has asked, so I would like to urge him to refer to those answers.