Debated in Parliament on 6 Jan 2020.
Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Social and Family Development with regard to basic and additional subsidies provided to families of Singapore citizen children enrolled in ECDA-licensed childcare centres (a) what is the current percentage of children who do not meet the 75% attendance requirement triggering the right on the part of Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) to effect a clawback of these subsidies; (b) what are the main reasons for the children being unable to meet the attendance requirements; and (c) what steps have or will be taken to address this issue.
To ensure affordable childcare for all families who need them, pre-school subsidies are provided for enrolled Singapore citizen children. The requirement is that they attend pre-school at least one day in the month, and not the 75% attendance rate as mentioned by the Member. The vast majority of children enrolled in pre-schools meet this very basic attendance requirement.
Regular pre-school attendance is important so that the child can fully benefit from the pre-school experience. This goes beyond learning to read and write, and extends to other aspects of child development, such as social and emotional learning and motor skills development.
Based on ECDA's interactions with preschools, reasons for low attendance are mostly non-financial in nature. Examples include parents' work arrangements, poor child health, lack of awareness on the importance of regular pre-school attendance, and competing priorities, such as the need to send multiple children to different schools.
For children with low or irregular attendance, pre-schools are strongly encouraged to engage the parents to understand the family's circumstances, and where needed, refer them to Family Service Centres and Social Service Offices which can assist the families who may benefit from social services support. Under KidSTART, selected pre-schools are supported with additional resources to help children from lower-income families address barriers to pre-school attendance and their overall socio-developmental needs. KidSTART currently supports 1,000 children across all KidSTART programmes, and will expand to reach another 5,000 children over the next three years.
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