SINGAPORE — Members of Parliament (MPs) offered suggestions for improving the childcare sector – from temporarily increasing the capacity of childcare centres to looking at the possibility of building up a pool of child minders - during the Budget debate in Parliament today.

Noting that the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) guidelines limit the capacity of children based on facility size and teacher to child ratio, Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Nee Soon GRC) said the Government should relax these guidelines and implement short-term measures “to ease the acute shortages immediately.”

Besides suggesting a temporary increase in capacity for childcare facilities facing the highest demand, Dr Lim expressed hope for more MOE-run preschools in future, to be paired with adjacent primary schools for a “seamless” pre-school to primary school education.

Nominated MP Mary Liew meanwhile suggested being “creative” even with sufficient pre-school places expected down the road.

She called for the MOE to consider a “home child minder arrangement” similar to what is practiced in Sweden, where women and teenagers can be trained to look after two or three children in their homes, and subsidies given to offset the cost for children under two years old.

Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang GRC) similarly proposed that the MOE conduct courses for mothers to coach their children at home, and suggested that the Wage Credit Scheme be tapped for funding the project.

“Encouraging mothers to spend more time coaching their children will contribute to their children’s holistic development and contribute to family bonding as well,” she said.

Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong meanwhile described the childcare industry as “wrongly structured”, adding that grants provided to anchor operators by the Government will disincentivise innovation.

Mr Yee instead called for childcare to be structured “as a public good, with regular competition by all operators for packages of sites at regulated fees”.