Strong families form the bedrock of our society. MSF is committed to supporting families across all life stages. This year, our focus is on families with young children, to ensure that every child has a good start in life, through these key areas:
- MSF will improve affordability and access to quality early childhood care and education, through lower fee caps at Anchor Operator and Partner Operator preschools and higher income ceiling under the Infant and Childcare Additional Subsidy Scheme and Kindergarten Fee Assistance Scheme.
- MSF will raise quality across the early childhood sector over the next five years by enhancing preschool, programme, and professional quality, fostering strong parent-preschool partnerships and leveraging research and innovation to support children’s holistic development.
I.
Access to Affordable and Quality Early Childhood Education
- We have achieved our commitment of ensuring that 80% of preschoolers can have a place in a government-supported preschool by end-2025.
- We are on track to add almost 40,000 more full-day preschool places in Anchor Operator preschools (AOP) between 2025 and 2029, including close to 6,000 infant care places.
[New] Lower fees at AOP and POP preschools
- Since 1 January 2026, full-day childcare fees at AOP and Partner Operator (POP) preschools have been reduced to $610 and $650 respectively.
- This brings full-day childcare expenses in an AOP preschool to levels comparable to the combined costs of primary school and after school care fees, before means tested subsidies.
Raised income ceiling for Infant and Childcare Additional Subsidy Scheme and Kindergarten Fee Assistance Scheme
- From 1 January 2027, the gross monthly household income ceiling for the Infant and Childcare Additional Subsidy (AS) and Kindergarten Fee Assistance Scheme (KiFAS) will be raised to $15,000.
- Income thresholds for all subsidy tiers will also be updated to reflect changes in household incomes.
- The enhancements are expected to benefit more than 60,000 families with children enrolled in preschools.
II.
Improving Quality of the Early Childhood Sector
- Our vision for quality preschools is one where children play, learn and grow alongside their peers, develop holistically with strong foundations for life. Enhancing Overall Preschool Quality
- The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) will work with the sector to
strengthen preschool quality to enhance child outcomes over the next five years.
We will work towards this by:
- Enhancing Preschool quality: Strengthening preschools’ capabilities to take ownership and drive continuous quality improvements;
- Enhancing Programme quality: Boosting sector-wide resources and training to improve preschools’ delivery of curriculum and programmes, and to support children’s transition to primary school;
- Enhancing Professional quality: Deepening educators’ skills and competencies to cater to children of different needs and backgrounds and strengthening educators’ professional development;
- Fostering Parent-preschool partnership: Building shared responsibility between parents and preschools to support children’s growth across home and preschool environments; and
- Strengthening research and innovation: Promoting research collaborations, practitioner inquiry, and evidence-based practices.
- These quality improvements will benefit children, parents, preschools, and educators, and support children’s holistic development. (Please see Annex for more information.)
Refreshed Early Childhood Industry Digital Plan (IDP)
- Launched in 2021, MSF and ECDA will be refreshing IDP (IDP 2.0), adopting a comprehensive strategic approach designed to drive sector-wide transformation, raise productivity for operators and educators, and improve teaching and learning outcomes across the sector.
IDP 2.0 will be rolled out from the second half of 2026 with five key thrusts:
- Operators will be expected to meet a set of baseline technology
requirements, covering key operational functions to streamline and
support centres more effectively (e.g. Preschool Management System or
digital tools for finance management and attendance taking).
- These requirements will be introduced in phases, starting with larger operators from June 2027, and subsequently extended to the rest of the sector.
- IDP2.0 will drive sector adoption of additional pre-approved digital
solutions, including video analytics and AI-enabled technologies, and
new hardware and equipment, with up to 50% funding support under the
Productivity Solutions Grant Framework.
- ECDA is currently working with solution providers to develop video analytics and AI-enabled solutions. Once pre-approved, operators can implement these solutions with funding support for adoption at their centres.
- IDP2.0 will strengthen funding support for adoption of digital and physical solutions, with co-funding of up to 50% for the initial implementation cost.
- IDP2.0 will introduce a new innovation seed funding initiative to support customised pilots and pilot projects, enabling operators to test new digital solutions before scaling.
- ECDA will build enhanced partnerships with academia and industry
partners including organisations such as ASSETS* to harness research
insights, accelerate adoption of proven technology and drive adoption of
solutions.
*ASSETS is the Association of Early Childhood and Training Services; a non-profit organisation, run by and for private pre-school and teacher training operators in Singapore.
Annex
Factsheet on Quality Improvements in the Early Childhood Sector
1. Over the last five years, ECDA has worked with the sector to raise the quality of the early childhood (EC) sector in terms of Provider, Programme, and Professional quality.
Provider Quality
2. The Singapore Preschool Accreditation Framework (SPARK) has been a key initiative to support preschools in improving their quality standards since it was introduced in 2011 and is recognised as a benchmark of quality. In 2025, the refreshed SPARK 2.0 tool was rolled out to support preschools in their quality improvement journey. It provides a sharper focus on teaching and learning, more flexibility for preschools to develop their own programmes, and greater autonomy for preschools to take ownership of their quality improvement.
Programme Quality
3. The Early Years Development Framework (EYDF) and Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) Framework were updated in 2023 and 2022 respectively to incorporate the latest developments in EC education policy, practice and research. All licensed preschools are required to reference these frameworks when planning their curriculum and programmes to ensure developmental appropriateness and effectiveness. To bridge theory and practice, comprehensive Educators' Guides have been developed to support educators in translating the key concepts and principles of these frameworks into meaningful daily learning experiences for children.
Professional Quality
4. Measures have been undertaken to better attract, develop and support EC educators, as well as improve their career proposition. The number of educators has increased from over 23,000 in 2021 to about 28,000 today.
5. ECDA refreshed the Skills Framework for Early Childhood (SFw EC) in 2021 to provide clarity on career opportunities and progression pathways for EC professionals. Together with the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Roadmaps for EC and Early Intervention (EI) that were rolled out progressively from 2021, educators have more guidance to chart out their professional and career development plans.
6. Initiatives were also rolled out to uplift the professionalism of the EC workforce. In 2022, ECDA launched the Early Childhood Learning Communities (ECLC) to promote sector-wide peer sharing and learning opportunities to advance pedagogical practices in key domain areas. Additionally, the third edition of the Code of Ethics (CoE) for Early Childhood Professionals was launched in 2024 to inspire and empower educators to make sound ethical judgements in their daily practice. In 2025, the revised Mentoring Guide and Practitioner Inquiry (PI) Starter Kit were released to strengthen mentoring capabilities and deepen professionals’ practice through PI respectively.
7. The Leadership Development Framework (LDF) was also introduced in 2022 to guide leaders in developing desired leadership attributes, skills, and competencies holistically. Additionally, to support experienced centre leaders in strengthening their core, strategic and administrative leadership skills, the Leadership Booster programme was launched in 2025. To strengthen both talent attraction and retention in the sector, ECDA has also enhanced the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Scholarship to expand support from in-service educators to both pre-service and in-service educators in pursuing their professional development (enhanced benefits will take effect from the July 2027 intake onwards).
8. In 2025, the Quality Teaching Tool (QTT) co-developed by ECDA and the National Institute of Education (NIE) was rolled out to establish a common standard for quality teaching in our local context, based on effective, evidence-based pedagogical practices. The QTT aims to uplift the quality of teaching and learning across the sector. Training for the QTT will be provided in phases from 2026 onwards.
9. ECDA also introduced initiatives to enhance the career proposition of EC professionals. Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day were designated as preschool holidays on top of six Development Days from 2024 onwards, and a relief staff pool was established to ease short-term manpower needs. The requirement for childcare centres to operate on Saturdays was also removed from 2025. These enable educators to have more time away from work to see to their professional or personal needs, better work-life balance, and to recharge. Additionally, salaries of educators in government-supported preschools are regularly reviewed to ensure their salaries are market-competitive and commensurate with their contributions and professional skills.
Next Bound for the Preschool Sector to Enhance Child Outcomes
10. Quality improvement is a continuous journey. Building on strong foundations, we will invest in strengthening the quality of the sector to enhance child outcomes in the next bound, and achieve our vision for quality preschools where children play, learn and grow alongside their peers and develop holistically with strong foundations for life. Over the next five years, we will journey with the sector to support children’s holistic development in five key areas.
Preschool Quality
11. We will enhance Preschool quality by partnering with preschools to strengthen their leadership, governance, and capabilities to take ownership and drive quality improvements. As the sector transits to SPARK 2.0, preschools will be supported in developing and implementing their improvement plans to ensure quality standards are upheld. For instance, we will work with preschools and their HQs to improve their provision of services across the different domains to achieve higher banding under SPARK 2.0, and work towards having more preschools with Commendation.
Programme Quality
12. We will enhance Programme quality by improving preschools’ delivery of curriculum programmes and supporting children’s holistic development and transition to primary school. We will boost sector-wide resources and training in key areas of focus, such as social and emotional development, to strengthen preschools’ translation of frameworks and delivery of developmentally appropriate programmes. We will also work with the sector to review the effectiveness of the frameworks in guiding educators to support children’s holistic learning and development.
Professional Quality
13. We will enhance Professional quality by deepening educators’ skills and competencies to cater to children of different needs and backgrounds and supporting educators’ professional development and well-being.
a. We will review educators’ qualifications, skills, and competencies required to support children of different needs and backgrounds. To ensure leaders in the sector are equipped to meet the increasing complexities, we will review how to strengthen the development of leaders.
b. We will develop initiatives and explore how to further alleviate workload pressures and streamline administrative tasks to enhance the attraction and retention of quality educators, and ensure they are well-supported and respected as professionals. For instance, we are reviewing non-contact time in preschools.
Parent-Preschool Partnership
14. We will foster stronger parent-preschool partnerships by building shared responsibility between parents and preschools so that children’s growth can be supported across the home and preschool environments. This includes providing greater clarity on the expectations and roles of parents and educators in parent-preschool partnerships and sharing best practices on fostering these partnerships.
Research and Innovation
15. We will strengthen research and innovation in the sector by engaging in research collaborations with partners to assess and measure the impact of programmes, whilst supporting preschools in practitioner inquiry to facilitate reflective practices and adopt evidence-based teaching and learning practices. This is to ensure research is effectively translated into practice to support child outcomes across the preschool sector.