Madam Li, with children aged one and two

With the recession, families that are struggling to stay afloat may have to decide to take their kids out of pre-school. NTUC First Campus Co-operative Limited set up a new fund to make sure parents need not have to do that. This is because the first six years of a child’s life is especially important for cognitive development.

The two-year initiative with OCBC Bank, called the OCBC-Bright Horizons Fund Retrenchment Relief Scheme, is for families where at least one parent has been retrenched and the monthly household income is below $2,200.

As the recession worsens, First Campus expects more families to ask for financial aid. The $500,000 scheme will help families pay for up to three months of childcare fees. First Campus hopes to help about 200 families a year or about 5 per cent of the 4,000 enrolled in My First Skool centres. OCBC has pledged $200,000 towards the programme with NTUC First Campus’ Bright Horizons Fund (BHF) contributing $300,000.

One recipient of this fund is Madam Li, 30, who has two children. Her husband was retrenched in December 2008 and the family had to live on a household income of $1,000 which Madam Li earns as a relief teacher. Madam Li had initially wanted to take her child out of pre-school to save costs although she felt her toddler was more independent since joining pre-school. He was able to put his own toys away and could even sing simple English nursery rhymes after being in pre-school for three months. With a recommendation from a teaching staff, she applied for BHF which covers her twoyear- old’s playgroup monthly fees of $428.

The BHF will help children from lower income families benefit from quality pre-school programmes in My First Skool centres. More than 300 children received financial assistance and benefitted from learning support programmes funded by the BHF in 2008. BHF’s learning support programmes also aim to support 500 more children this year and up to 1,000 by 2011. Two learning support programmes, in addition to the existing Read-to-Reach, will be in place by 2011 to help young children level up to their peers when they reach primary school. To reach out to more families in need, the household income criteria for BHF applicants was raised from $1,800 to $2,200 earlier this year. These expansion plans are estimated to cost $1.3 million in 2009 and up to $2 million by 2011.

Name change

First Campus is the new name for NTUC Childcare which revamped and revitalised its brand and image this January. The name change reflects NTUC’s commitment to the national goal of pre-school education for a broader market.

The precursor of First Campus, NTUC Childcare, has a history that dates back to the 1970s when NTUC took over a few childcare centres from the government to provide early childhood care and education. First Campus now manages 50 pre-schools with a total intake of more than 5,500 children.

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