Singapore

Sounds like America fifty years ago. With more visibility, with more modernization this will change, but is that necessarily good. If families stay together, if children are born within a family structure, if the traditional ways of life are maintained, there may be no reason to have childcare. I love the part at the end about men getting involved. It's so rare - here, there and everywhere.

Less Than 10% of Children in Child Care Centres From Low Income Families

By Yvonne Cheong
Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE :

Not enough low income families are sending their children to child care centres, despite subsidies of up to 90% to help mothers go back to work to bring in a second income.

The Community Development, Youth and Sports Ministry says less than 10% of children enrolled in child care centres are from low income families. So at an annual child care seminar, Parliamentary Secretary Dr Mohd Maliki Osman challenged child care centre operators to make their programmes more accessible to low income families.

"What we need to do is to try to get low income families, for example, to visit child care centres, to understand what is provided for them and to look at how their children can benefit from such an environment," said Dr Mohd Maliki of the Community Development, Youth and Sports Ministry.

"Perhaps we can try to explore initial programs of assimilation for them, and let their children try out such child care centres." Those who are resistant usually have more than one child or are ignorant of the benefits of child care and subsidies available. So child care providers can work with grassroots organisations to seek out needy families.

Another challenge is the lack of male teachers. 38-year-old Jeremiah Ng, who started his own centre in Bukit Panjang, belongs to the paltry 1% of male early childhood educators here.

Gender stereotypes, less attractive wages and parents' apprehension about possible abuse are some barriers. The ministry says one way to allay the fears of parents is to have a code of ethics for all childhood educators, and to have rules which restrict male teachers from certain caregiving roles such as toileting and bathing.

"Men should actually go for some training and learn about child development concepts, family life cycle. This is very important in the field of family and children because we're not only dealing with children, we are also dealing with the family," said Jeremiah Ng, an educator at Adelfibel Infant & Child Development Centre.

And an optimistic Jeremiah believes more men will come forward to take up the challenge.