SINGAPORE — The PAP Community Foundation will work closely with the Government to raise the quality of kindergarten education while keeping costs affordable, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

And to that end, the PCF has consolidated more than two-thirds of its centres under centralised management, in an exercise that began in 2011 to drive consistency across the organisation.

The update came from PCF Executive Committee Chairman Lawrence Wong, on the sidelines of the annual PCF Family Day, as the spotlight fell on the PCF’s efforts to give every child a good start in life.

Through teacher training and curriculum development, “we’ve done our best to raise quality and standards of PCF centres to meet rising aspirations of parents”, Mr Lee said in his speech at the event.

All centres are expected to come under PCF headquarters by next year. But the process is “not easy”, Mr Wong told reporters, and includes pushing struggling centres to improve and changing varied working modes.

There are also plans to bring all 353 centres under the Education Ministry’s Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework. More than 80 have been accredited thus far.

Coming under one of the two existing anchor pre-school operators here, PCF centres are traditionally operated at the constituency level.

But a decentralised operation style has resulted in “uneven” quality and different salary progression for staff, noted Mr Wong, who is also Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth.

With consolidation, PCF centres are able to enjoy economies of scales, such as in IT systems, and offer educators better career opportunities. For instance, there can be salary harmonisation and teachers can progress to leadership and curriculum job roles.

“Anecdotally, we’ve been be able to reduce attrition, and I think we’re better able to attract staff,” said Mr Wong, who stressed the need for PCF to stay attractive as an employer, given the industry’s manpower crunch.

A PCF spokesperson told TODAY that monthly average salaries of PCF educators range from S$1,600 to S$4,800. Staff interviewed said that an early childhood diploma holder would now start at $1,800 and S$2,000, about S$200 more than before.

PCF (Bukit Gombak) principal Zai Kadir added that professional upgrading opportunities are a strong incentive to entice and retain teachers, as this would enable them to put knowledge into practice.

But, higher pay aside, she said: “More could be done to manage teachers’ stress, such as reducing their administrative workload and perhaps lowering the child-teacher ratio.”

Ms Chua Lay Mui, an executive principal at PCF, said that the consolidation process has been challenging but is a “bold step” to raise overall quality. She believes that with time and through initiatives such as better curriculum and upgrading of facilities, PCF will provide better pre-school education.

Mr Wong also hopes that mindsets towards PCF centres, relative to other pre-school players, would improve with consolidation efforts that are underway. He said: “We don’t want PCF to become a pre-school centre where people say, ‘I don’t have anywhere to go, then I go to PCF’.”

With the Government’s S$3-billion boost for the pre-school sector, which includes expanding the number of anchor operators to provide more affordable options, the competition will spur PCF centres to raise the bar, said Mr Wong.

However, while the pre-school sector is shifting towards childcare offerings, he cautioned against converting all PCF centres into the childcare model. There is still demand for half-day kindergarten programmes, and PCF will accommodate childcare needs according to the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s planning parameters, he said.

Parents such as Sharon Lee, 35, switched her daughter from a private childcare centre to PCF this year in anticipation of her child entering Primary One. Uncertain about a “learning through play” pedagogy in the previous centre, Ms Lee said that her K2 child is now able to speak and write more confidently.

Ms Rozila Musa, 32, also told TODAY that there are now more programmes for her Kindergarten-One daughter as compared to her Primary Two’s son time at PCF.

“My only concern is whether my daughter is adequately prepared for Primary One and I can only hope the school does that”, she added.

At the event yesterday held at Resorts World Sentosa, PM also commended fund-raising initiatives by PAP Members of Parliament to raise S$610,000 for 30 non-profit beneficiaries. He further gave out 49 study awards for polytechnic students.

Urging Singaporeans to take full advantage of PCF programmes, Mr Lee added: “I hope that when you do well, you’ll give back to society. That’s the way to build a strong and gracious Singapore family”.