Nationalise pre-school education: Christopher de Souza

The government should consider nationalising the pre-school education sector altogether to level the playing field in terms of access, said Holland-Bukit Timah Member of Parliament Christopher de Souza.

Taking his turn at the lectern during the ongoing budget debate on Tuesday, de Souza argued that all Singaporeans should have equal access to affordable and good quality pre-school education, and that Singapore should either build up a culture of this, or the government should take the lead and nationalise it altogether.

“Quality pre-school education should not be a privilege of the elite in society, but should be made available to all,” he said. “Subsidies through child development accounts are helpful but we must consider going the broad way and nationalising pre-school education altogether. Level the playing field — that must be a focus,” he added.

The MP said this could be done by tapping on “synergy” generated by private-public initiatives such as Care Corner, which provides high-quality education to disadvantaged children.

On nationalising the pre-school system, he noted that one advantage of doing so would give the government more control and regulation over the curriculum and content that is taught, so that it can emphasise on the development on social skills and moral values over numeracy and literacy skills, one of the oft-cited reservations the government has expressed on this.

“I believe these assumptions can and should be challenged and that we should apply fresh lenses to the issue before us,” he said.

Pre-school industry ‘wrongly structured’: Yee Jenn Jong

Separately, non-constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong said it is good that the government is channelling large amounts of money into the pre-school sector, but the industry is wrongly structured and the grants given will worsen the existing challenges it faces, not help it.

“There will be negative consequences arising from the current AOP (anchor operator) scheme,” he said. “It will wipe our many existing players, especially operators charging fees that cater to lower and middle income families.”

Yee argued that a healthy level of competition is needed for operators to be innovative, to continue to offer high-quality services at competitively affordable prices.

He noted that firms under the AOP scheme enjoy significantly lower rental costs and a combination of start-up grants, for operation, teacher training and scholarships.

“In return, AOPs are expected to charge fees below the industry median. That’s hardly any challenge at all, given that the generous grants and low rents will easily allow them to achieve this without having to be innovative or cost-conscious,” he said.

He recommended that the government should instead offer packages of sites with rental that is regulated to all operators, instead of simply favouring anchor operators.

“With the same level of investment the government has planned, I believe it will achieve in better outcomes for affordability, accessibility and quality,” he said.

Additional reporting by Shah Salimat