Press Releases
More Preschool Places and Initiatives to Strengthen Quality in Early Childhood Sector
02 Nov 2024
MORE PRESCHOOL PLACES AND INITIATIVES TO STRENGTHEN QUALITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SECTOR
1 At the Early Childhood Celebrations (ECC) 2024, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli announced more affordable preschool places and seamless subsidy application as well as initiatives to uplift quality and professionalism in the Early Childhood (EC) sector. These are Early Childhood Development Agency’s (ECDA) ongoing efforts to enhance access to affordable and quality preschools in Singapore.
More preschool places and seamless subsidy application for parents
2 ECDA will work with the five Anchor Operators to develop close to 40,000 new infant and childcare places from 2025 to 2029. This will include approximately 6,000 new infant care places to cater to increased demand for such services. As announced during Budget 2024, from 1 January 2025, full-day childcare fee caps at Anchor and Partner Operators will be reduced by $40 to $640 and $680 (excluding GST) per month respectively. From 9 December 2024, all lower-income families with a gross monthly household income of $6,000 and below will qualify for the maximum amount of childcare subsidies for their income tier. To make preschool subsidy application more seamless, parents will be able to apply for subsidies directly to ECDA digitally, instead of through preschools, via the LifeSG application. This new process will be rolled out in phases from 9 December 2024.
Greater autonomy and ownership in SPARK 2.0 for preschool educators
3 ECDA will continue to innovate and strengthen the EC ecosystem to support operators and educators in delivering quality care and education for our children. To give preschools greater autonomy and ownership in developing and providing quality child-centric programmes, we will implement a revised Singapore Preschool Accreditation Framework (SPARK), SPARK 2.0 from January 2025.
4 Recognising the diverse EC landscape, SPARK 2.0 adopts a validation approach where preschools self-appraise their quality against standards and indicators set out in the new SPARK tool prior to seeking ECDA’s validation. Instead of specifying what preschools have to do, the quality standards and indicators prompt preschools to reflect on the intent and design of their programmes and activities in relation to their aspired goals, as well as children’s profiles and needs. This shift aims to encourage preschools to develop programmes tailored to children’s needs and preschools’ unique strengths. It also gives preschools greater ownership of their quality journey. ECDA has also aligned SPARK 2.0 with resources such as the recently updated Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) and Early Years Development Frameworks (EYDF), thereby ensuring relevance to best EC practices.
5 To encourage preschools to prioritise continuous improvement of practices rather than focusing on attaining certification, SPARK 2.0 has been streamlined to focus on five key criteria (instead of eight previously), while enabling greater flexibility for preschools to implement diverse strategies.
6 Furthermore, instead of a compulsory certification renewal after six years, ECDA will work closely with preschool operators to oversee preschools’ conduct of self-appraisals and implementation of improvement plans to continually raise the quality of their centres. This reflective practice seeks to foster a culture of ownership among preschools and educators, motivating them to evaluate their practices to drive high-quality, child-centric approaches thoughtfully.
Deepening educators’ ethical reflection and professional growth with updated Code of Ethics
7 As the demands on EC and Early Intervention (EI) educators become increasingly complex, greater emphasis is placed on strengthening educators’ professional conduct and practice to uphold a high level of public confidence in the sector. In collaboration with ECDA and with inputs from the sector, the Code of Ethics (CoE) has been updated by the Association for Early Childhood Educators Singapore (AECES) to reflect recent developments and practices and ensure its continued usability. While primarily intended for both EC and EI educators, the revised Code is also extended to pre-service educators and preschool operators.
8 To support educators in making sound judgements in the course of their work, the revised Code will more clearly outline their professional responsibilities towards various stakeholders (i.e. child, families and community and fellow educators) and include case studies designed to spur deeper reflection. The Code will guide educators in making ethical decisions, even amidst complex situations, by providing a common set of guiding principles in their conduct towards the different stakeholders. Over time, ECDA hopes that this effort would foster greater trust and confidence between educators and parents.
9 ECDA is committed to continuously uplifting the quality and professionalism of the EC sector, strengthening the infrastructure and ecosystem of the sector so all children can benefit from affordable and high-quality EC care and education.
Additional information can be found in the Annexes: