Residents of Sengkang and Punggol will soon get 1,000 child care places within their estates by the middle of 2016, reported Channel NewsAsia.
The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) said there will be two centres each accommodating 500 students, with the one in Sengkang run by NTUC First Campus’ My First Skool, while the Punggol centre will be run by E-bridge Pre-school.
Both centres will open for registration in January next year through ECDA’s online registration management system at www.childcarelink.gov.sg.
The Sengkang centre will offer an Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children, serving up to 300 special needs kids. ECDA noted that this is the first time such a place would be located next to a child care centre.
“Co-locating it together with this is an important development. It allows the students to interact. Today, you will find that there are many of these places that allow students to interact with each other, to learn more about each other and I think it is a good opportunity to infuse values at a very early stage,” said Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin at its ground-breaking ceremony.
Meanwhile, another three large child care centres – each with a capacity of 300 places – will be built in Yishun, Woodlands and Jurong West by end-2016. Operators for these centres will be revealed at a later date.
Announced earlier this year, the construction of larger child care centres is part of the government’s efforts to meet the increasing demand for affordable child care in young estates.
“We understand the needs of parents with young children in these estates. We are working hard with local grassroots advisers and other government agencies to meet these needs. The two upcoming large child care centres in Sengkang and Punggol are the result of these partnerships,” noted Mr Tan.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
