No Need to Extend Hours for All Child Care Centres at the Moment

In the letters, “Change with the times” (25 May 2009) and “The extra mile,
an extra hour” (27 May 09), Ms Wendy Lee and Ms Jiang Pei Ju suggested that
the operating hours of child care centres be extended as parents are now leaving
their work later.

2 Currently, child care centres are required by the Ministry of Community

Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) to open no later than 7am and to close
not earlier than 7pm on weekdays. Centres are also encouraged to be flexible
and offer extended hours based on the demands of their parents. Parents can
work out a mutually agreeable arrangement with their child care centres. There
are currently 93 centres which close later than 7pm located across Singapore,
with 10 centres operating until 8.30pm or later. This is an increase from the 75
centres offering extended hours in April 2008. Parents who need to put their
children in these centres with extended hours can find a listing in the Child Care
Link at www.childcarelink.gov.sg.

3 Notwithstanding this parents should be aware that it may be tiring for

young children to be away from home for too long. It may also raise the fees for
the majority of parents who may not require extended hours if the longer hours
are mandated.

4 On Ms Jiang’s comments on salaries and high turnover of child care

teachers, we note that it is the responsibility of child care centre operators to
provide for their staff's welfare and explore ways to retain good staff. Whilst the
Ministry does not determine the salaries of child care centre staff, we support
centres and teachers through funding programmes that help centres remunerate
their teachers well, while keeping fees affordable. We have also raised the
minimum qualifications of child care teachers and introduced scholarships and
bursaries to help teachers upgrade themselves. These measures would enable
child care professionals to command higher salaries, as well as enhance their
quality. We are happy to note that some operators have increased salary
packages in line with the government’s initiative to raise the quality of pre-school
teachers.

5 We thank Ms Lee and Ms Jiang for their feedback.

Lee Kim Hua

Director
Family Services Division
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports
The extra mile, an extra hours

I refer to the letter “Childcare centres – change with the times” (May 25).

I share the sentiments of the writer. Being a working mother of two young
children, I have to struggle with my hectic work schedule and picking up my
children before the childcare centre closes at 7pm. The centre penalized me on
several occasions with a fine because I could only reach there after 7pm.

Both my husband and I have to work. We do not have our parents around to
help us look after the children, and my family has opted for infant care, childcare
and student care centres over hiring a nanny or maid.

Two years ago, after the birth of my second child, the Ministry of Community
Development, Youth and Sports sent an officer to our house to conduct a survey
on childcare service. The objective of the survey was to seek parents’ feedback
on which avenues parents would consider in the care of their children.

We told the officer that we would appreciate it if the centre could extend their
operating hours on certain days to allow parents to run errands or work beyond
the stated office hours, given how demanding jobs are nowadays. At least we
could work with minds at peace knowing that our children are well taken of.

We would not mind paying a small premium for this “extra mile” service.

On another note, my eldest child is seven years old and we have enrolled him at
a student care centre, while my second child has been transferred from infant
care to the playgroup in the same childcare centre.

The turnover of teachers at childcare centres is extremely high. I am concerned

that this will affect the children’s physical and mental development as teachers
are often stretched to cover multiple workloads while the centre struggle to
replace the teachers who leave.

I wonder if childcare centres have been informed that preschool teachers are
encouraged to upgrade their skills and the training will be subsidised by the
Government. Perhaps centres should also consider offering better pay packages
to attract more to join and stay in a profession which can be challenging.

Jiang Pei Ju
Changes with the times

I refer to “Private companies should pay their part” (May 21). I would like to offer
my view as a full-time working mother.

The opening hours designated by the Ministry of Community Development,

Youth and Sports (MCYS) for childcare centres are 7am to 7pm on weekdays.

I believed that these hours were decided many years ago, to give parents a
leeway of 1.5 hours for them to travel to and from their workplace. But these
were obviously based on office hours in the past when working from 8.30am to
5.30pm on weekdays was the norm.

However, with more companies now having moved to a five-day week, people
leave their offices at 6pm.

Not many of us using public transport will be able to reach the childcare centre
within a hour. And this is assuming that there is no overtime work.

Many parents ask their parents or in-laws to fetch their children from the
childcare centre. However, not everyone has the luxury of this alternative
arrangement.

I understand that there are centres that operate for extended hours beyond 7pm,
but these are few and far between, and their vacancies are mostly full as their
longer opening hours are a plus point for parents.

I hope that MCYS will look into extending the hours for childcare centres.
Without this, the issue of childcare will be a problem that won’t be resolved event
with the opening of 200 new centres.

Wendy Lee