MCYS' advice to centres follows uproar over 'unreasonable' increases
By Stacey Chia, The Straits Times, 11 Jun 2012
GUIDELINES were issued to childcare centres last month on the raising of fees, and some centres have begun following them.
The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), under whose jurisdiction childcare centres fall, recommended that centres intending to raise their fees give at least three months' notice to parents, instead of only two.
They are also advised to explain why fees need to be raised, and implement fee increases at the start of the academic year.
The move by the MCYS follows a recent uproar among parents over what they saw as unreasonable preschool fee hikes.
A petition by them, to be sent at the end of this month to the MCYS, is making its rounds.
A copy will also be sent to the Ministry of Education (MOE), which oversees kindergartens.
Setting fee-increase guidelines is just about the most that the MCYS can do.
Its spokesman said that as such preschools are privately owned, they are at liberty to set their own fees, 'taking into consideration operating costs and market demand'.
In April, Mr James Tan, a father in his 30s with a child at a Brighton Montessori childcare centre, started the petition; it calls on the authorities to form a committee to oversee fee adjustments, and to limit such increases to once every two years.
He also wrote in to The Straits Times Forum page, urging the MCYS and the MOE to regulate fees for childcare centres and kindergartens.
Parents who have signed the petition are upset with the frequent fee increases, which come in quantums of as much as hundreds of dollars, and which happen in the middle of the school year; they feel they have little choice but to pay up to avoid the hassle of finding another school.
Mr Tan, who has collected 70 signatures, is still not mollified, because the guidelines do little to prevent these centres from increasing fees drastically.
Urging the MOE to provide preschool education since the ministry already does 'a great job with primary school education', he said: 'Basically, the MOE and MCYS will need to come up with quality, affordable preschool education to combat the private operators.'
Among the centres that have begun following the guidelines are those run by Knowledge Universe, which owns Brighton Montessori and three other preschools, namely Learning Vision, Pat's Schoolhouse and Odyssey.
Another school, Kinderland, has pledged to give at least three months' notice to parents.
Retiree Vivien Tan, 68, whose five-year-old grandson attends Kinderland's preschool in Yio Chu Kang, said she appreciates the move by the school.
'At least parents now have ample time to budget,' she said.
The PAP Community Foundation (PCF), which runs both childcare centres and kindergartens, already enforces fee increases only in the new school year as a matter of policy; EtonHouse preschool said it gives parents more than three months' notice of fee hikes.
The centres run by NTUC's My First Skool, however, indicated that they have no firm plans to change their fee policy. A spokesman said My First Skool does not have a schedule for raising fees because factors such as the economic climate come into play. In its last fee revision a year ago, fees went up by about $30.
Consulting company manager Lim Hui Choo, a 36-year-old mother of a pair of preschool-aged children, said she welcomed the guidelines: 'I didn't send my younger son to the same kindergarten as my older one precisely because of unfair fee-increase policies. But I feel three months is still not enough notice.'
An MOE spokesman said in a Forum letter that the ministry will consider requiring kindergarten operators to give parents a longer period of notice.
The new guidelines
CHILDCARE centres have been advised to carry out fee revisions in a 'transparent manner' and to give parents ample notice.
The following guidelines were issued last month:
- Give three months' notice of a fee revision, up from two months
This is so that parents can be financially prepared and make alternative arrangements where necessary.
- Give reasons for feerevision
Schools are to explain to parents the rationale for the revision and to address their queries.
- Effect fee revisions in newschool year
Schools are encouraged to time the effective date of the new fees with the start of the academic year, after having given sufficient notice the year before.
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