New fund to help low-income families pay for Singapore pre-school

New fund to help low-income families pay for Singapore pre-school

By Hoe Yeen Nie, 

SINGAPORE: A new fund has been set up to help low-income families pay for pre-school.

It is a collaboration between the self-help group the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) and Singapore’s largest childcare provider, NTUC Childcare. It is called the CDAC Workfare - Bright Horizons Fund scheme.

About S$200,000 has been set aside for the fund so far, and it is expected to help up to 100 children in its first year. The CDAC and NTUC Childcare each contributed half the amount.

Launching the fund, Lim Swee Say, chairman of CDAC’s Board of Directors, said: “In addition to all this financial support from the government, maybe as a self-help group, maybe NTUC as a social enterprise, maybe we can extend additional help, say, for the next two years.”

Thanks to the new fund, “life will become a little easier” for the parents of five-year-old Bong Tze An.

Tze An’s childcare fee costs her parents S$450 a month, after deducting the limited subsidies they receive as Singapore Permanent Residents. But it is still a hefty sum in a household where per capita income is just under S$500.

Thanks to the new fund, her parents will receive a further subsidy of S$200 each month.

Mrs Bong said: “With the subsidy, life will become a little easier, and I can use the spare cash to pay for my son’s tuition.”

The CDAC may also extend the scheme to other childcare providers.

Much has been said about the importance of early childhood development, and the fund should go some way into getting more kids into pre-school. Aside from this, it would also free up time for more stay-at-home mums to return to the workforce.

The CDAC also hopes that its partnership with NTUC Childcare will lead to more families being identified for other forms of assistance, such as help in finding jobs.

- CNA/ir

 
Source : Channel NewsAsia - 08 Sept 2008

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