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Infant & Child care fees Comparison

LittleComingSoon


In this busy era, we are all busy working adults but we often want the BEST for our child.

But between infant care and child care centre, what are the fees like?

f you have a full-time job and are consistently unable to be around to look after your kid on weekdays, an infant care or childcare centre is probably your best bet in terms of value for money. Here are some options for infant and childcare in Singapore.


Infant care

1. My First Skool by NTUC: Being one of the more affordable centres, an infantcare under My First Skool costs $1,364 to $1,705 for infants and $770 to $1,156 for toddlers (above 18 months). Take note that it’s quite difficult to get a spot given its popularity. For Singaporeans, My First Skool’s childcare fees are capped at $720 (excluding GST).


2. Sparkletots by PCF: There are 360 over preschools operated by Sparkletots by PCF. Infantcare costs around $1,370 per month while the childcare costs between $496.60 and $850.50. Like My First Skool by NTUC, it’s quite popular given that they’re one of the cheapest options.

I placed my child on the waiting list for all the available infant cares under PCF Sparkletots in Queenstown, but only received an SMS 6 months later asking me I was still interested to stay on the waiting list. Well, I hear anecdotes from fellow parents that calling in directly and applying pressure to the school works, so you may want to try that if you’re aiming to place your child here.


3.Church kindergartens: Some churches in Singapore offer kindergartens, but they usually cater for children from pre-nursery level (at least 18 months) and up. You don’t have to be Christian to enrol your children. While these used to be affordable, now they are on par with the government childcare centres. One that I was looking into in the Commonwealth area was Luther Preschool. It costs $850 per month before subsidy.


Childcare fees

Premium childcare centres

Many centres focus their curriculum around a certain early childhood approach or a mix of them. For example, a name that is pretty familiar to parents, the Montessori approach calls for free activity within an educational environment tailored to characteristics of children at different ages and to the individual personalities of each child. Children enrolled in a Montessori-based school will also gain access to specialised training materials appropriate to their age.

For premium childcare centres, be prepared to fork out between $12,000 to $40,000 a year. This works out to be around $1,000 to $3,333 per month.

Other premium childcare centres include those operated by international schools which could be an ideal choice for expats who want their child to have an easier time easing back to the school system in their home country in the future.


More affordable childcare centres

1.NTUC First Campus:

With the social mission of providing quality and affordable early childcare and education services to working parents, this is an option for parents who are more price-sensitive. Be assured though that cheaper childcare does not equate to a lack of quality, in fact they have even set up a training institution for early childhood operators and provides a proper curriculum framework for infants and toddlers.

NTUC First Campus runs a number of programmes depending on the child's age. Skool-Educare is for infants between 2 months to 3 years old, Skool-Ace is for those from 18 months to 6 years, and Skool-Ready is designed for kids of 4 to 6 years. Fees typically range from $707.81 to $1,112.27 while infant care fees are from $1,342.85 to $2,014.28 before government subsidies.

2.Anchor operators:

The Anchor Operator (AOP) scheme provides funding support to selected preschool operators to increase access to good quality and affordable early childcare and education. Operators receive funding to keep to a monthly fee cap of $720 and $1,275 for full-day childcare and full-day infant care respectively.

One of the largest of these anchor operators is Skool4kidz, which has 13 branches around the island and will also operate the first childcare campus to be built in a park. Monthly fees for full-day childcare is $770, excluding all fees and insurance.

Partner operators: The Partner Operator (POP) scheme which commenced in 2016 supports childcare operators to keep fees affordable and to build capabilities to raise quality. Similar to the AOP scheme, operators receive funding to keep monthly fees to a max of $800 and $1,400 for full-day childcare and full-day infant care respectively. A list of these operators can be found at the ECDA website.

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