More lower-income kids attending pre-school regularly after NTUC First Campus pilot

Attendance rates among preschoolers from low-income households at My First Skool centres have improved within a year of a new intervention programme.

- Syarafana Shafeeq

Between July 2024 and April 2025, attendance of nursery and kindergarten children from these families rose from around 72 per cent to 77 per cent, following a pilot programme by NTUC First Campus, which operates 162 My First Skool centres across Singapore.

Launched in July 2024, the programme supports disadvantaged families in addressing challenges that hinder regular pre-school attendance. It has so far helped 930 children across eight centres, chosen for their higher proportion of pupils from lower-income backgrounds. This refers to those from families with a household income of less than $6,000.

The pilot, which is supported by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), will run until 2027, and aims to reach out to at least 700 more children in 2025.

Nationally, pre-school attendance among children from such households is lower than that of their peers from other income groups.

Children from lower-income families enrolled in anchor operator pre-schools — which receive government funding for keeping their fees affordable — have a monthly attendance rate of about 72 per cent, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli had said in Parliament in March 2024. This is lower than the 79 per cent attendance rate of their middle-income peers.