SINGAPORE: A fee increase is in the pipeline at some
People's Action Party (PAP) Community Foundation (PCF)
kindergartens and childcare centres, especially those which are
losing money.
While fees will not increase "across the board", a
PCF spokesperson told MediaCorp that a PCF branch may consider
doing so with justifications such as new curricula or special
programmes.
The spokesperson said in an email reply: "The need
to increase fees is based on the branch's finances. Sometimes, the
fund-raising efforts by the advisers help to cover the cost of
operations. But this is not the long-term solution."
She added: "Sometimes, unavoidably, the fees have to increase a
little to help cover the cost of operations. Hence, fee increase,
if any, is made by the branch, and not PCF-wide."
The PCF, the largest operator with about six in 10 of pre-school
children here on its books, has 240 kindergartens and 65 childcare
centres spread across 87 branches in Singapore. Fees ranged from
S$90 to S$120 per month as of August last year.
Its response came after Senior Minister of State Grace Fu told
MediaCorp that fees at the Yuhua PCF centres, where she is branch
chairperson, needed to be set at "a sustainable level".
Nursery classes there cost S$105, which she said was "lower than
many operators", even though it has been raising the pay of its
teachers to attract those with better qualifications. She added
that it has also spent S$800,000 over the last three years to
upgrade its centres.
Ms Fu, who met with the staff last week, said the Yuhua PCF reviews
its fees annually before the start of enrolment. She said: "We
expect our operations to be slightly in the red this financial
year. Our fees will have to be set at a sustainable level to keep
the operations going. We'll ensure that parents who have financial
difficulties are helped to keep their children in our
centres."
Woodlands PCF, which has eight kindergartens and one childcare
centre, is another branch where a fee increase is being considered,
said Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of
Parliament Ellen Lee.
Said Ms Lee: "The fees that we're collecting from parents aren't
really sustainable in the long term to keep up with the expenses we
have to incur in terms of ... salaries and improvements we made for
the centres."
While she is for the idea of raising fees, the question is when,
she said, noting that the branch will have to be cognisant of the
"general climate" and complaints about cost of living.
She added: "We're trying to hold out as long as we could but, say,
what if we start to lose teachers because we can't pay ... There's
so much poaching going on."
Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar, who agrees on the need for
sustainability, said raising fees is always an option for his
Thomson PCF branches, although no decision has been made yet.
Still, some are not considering fee hikes. PCF centres at Keat Hong
branch in Chua Chu Kang GRC started breaking even last year, for
instance. MP Zaqy Mohamed attributed this to a different business
model: Benchmarking teachers' key performance indicators to
enrolment figures and adopting more innovative programmes.
He said this would stave off a fee increase "for at least a few
years".
One parent whose children are in PCF expressed his reservations of
a possible fee hike. Mr Shawn Koh, a private tutor and father of
three, said: "If they want to further increase fees, there may be
parents who withdraw completely from kindergarten education."
He added that most parents who send their children to PCF are those
"who can't afford" the fees of private kindergartens.
The PCF spokesperson said it will help in the application of
financial assistance and parents would be informed of any fee
increase about three months in advance.
The last major round of increase, by 50-odd PCF branches, was in
2008, due to rising operating costs.
- TODAY
