\n<\/p>\n
For many lower income families, experts said sending a child to preschool also involves juggling multiple stressors: irregular work hours, caring for multiple children with differing needs, managing physical health or mental-health challenges and coping with financial strains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For one, the distance between a child\u2019s home and school is a major contributor to irregular attendance as it often determines whether a parent has the capacity to send them to school. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen the preschool is far, any obstacle can make it harder for them to cope. For some families, distance is not just an inconvenience, it is the trigger point that makes regular attendance unsustainable,\u201d said Ms Ang from Touch Community Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Clivon Heng, a family coach at MSF, said the home\u2019s proximity to the preschool is \u201ccrucial\u201d for maintaining regular attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is what he has experienced with a number of his clients, such as Ms Maznah, who has to send one child to an early intervention for infants and children (EIPIC) centre, and her other children to another pre-school.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the EIPIC centre is a 15-minute bus ride away, the preschool is less than a five-minute walk from home.\u00a0<\/p>\n With it being so close by, she is able to send her children to school regularly and meet the monthly attendance requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cFor some families in rental flats, the location of the school nearby has a long waiting list. Even if they are able to find an alternative, it can be quite a distance away and this increases their transportation costs,\u201d said <\/strong>Mr Mohamed Noh Adam, manager of programmes and community outreach at Pertapis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More often than not, these are families living paycheque to paycheque, and even small additional costs for transportation can strain their budgets.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe do have families that really want to enrol their children into a preschool which may require travelling. When the transport issues come, it can prevent or hinder them in terms of regularity of attendance,\u201d said Ms Lim from Fei Yue.<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, Ms Lim noted that for many families with children attending early intervention programmes at a different location, the added travel creates extra hassle and cost.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFrom my experience, there is a sizeable number of families who would really benefit from financial assistance for transportation,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Offering transport subsidies or incentives, including Grab vouchers or credits for parents, could provide short-term support to families in need, Ms Lim added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another concern is that some parents perceive preschool as \u201cjust a place where children go to play\u201d, and may therefore feel it is not worth the time and effort it takes to get their children there regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhile most parents generally understand the importance of education, our experience suggests that life circumstances often make it difficult to prioritise preschool attendance,\u201d said Touch\u2019s Ms Ang.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor instance, if families are struggling to meet fundamental needs like putting food on the table, they will naturally de-prioritise preschool education to ensure they can meet basic human needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In October, a preschool in Bukit Merah that served children from lower-income families announced that it would close down by end-2025 due to falling enrolment arising from the fact that more affordable and accessible preschools have become available in the estate.<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, Beyond Social Services, which operates the Healthy Start Child Development Centre preschool, said that families still struggle with transport issues and irregular work hours, among other issues.<\/span><\/p>\n Responding to queries by CNA on preschool proximity, MSF said that ECDA (Early Childhood Development Agency)\u00a0plans for the supply of preschool places to meet anticipated enrolment demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt considers various factors including demographic trends, projected resident birth rates, enrolment patterns and availability of preschool places within each planning area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n ECDA further works with anchor operator preschools to provide priority enrolment to children from families with a gross monthly income of up to $6,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n ECDA is also supporting a pilot programme in select anchor operated preschools to offer additional support for preschool attendance and learning for children from lower-income families, the ministry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n