$2,600 is only for a 10-week term. For a whole year, it will be more than $10,000.
No wonder Sinkies are stupid; it is because they do not have the quality of foundational education that FTs have. The poor Sinkies can only send their children to kindergartens run by the PAP.
The campus in Harding Road is about the size of 17 Housing Board 5-room flats.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
Isabelle Liew
SEP 21, 2021
SINGAPORE - For the past 15 years, a single-storey house in the leafy Dempsey Road enclave has been home to a branch of St James' Church Kindergarten.
But the non-profit pre-school, which is linked to the Anglican church located off Holland Road, faces an uncertain future after next year.
Since 2015, the kindergarten has been paying $111,053 a month to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to rent four blocks with a combined space of 20,500 sq ft.
The campus in Harding Road - about the size of 17 Housing Board 5-room flats - also has a sprawling garden.
The lease ends on Dec 31 next year. Anglican Preschool Services (APS), which runs the kindergarten, has offered to pay $76,200 a month from 2023.
But it has been outbid by other pre-school operators, a check of the tender on the SLA website showed.
The result of the tender was to have been announced last Tuesday (Sept 14) but has been postponed to Dec 13, adding to the uncertainty, said parents.
When contacted, a spokesman for the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which oversees the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), said it could not comment as the tender was still being evaluated.
Bids for the property will be evaluated by price and quality, the ECDA spokesman said, with half the overall score based on bid price and the other half based on the quality of the kindergarten's programme, its affordability and track record.
Academic director and former principal of the kindergarten Jacqueline Chung told The Straits Times it was unable to match the bids made by other pre-school operators as it wanted to keep school fees affordable.
Fees range from around $1,700 to $2,600 per 10-week term.
A check on SLA's website showed that Kiddiwinkie Schoolhouse and Odyssey The Global Preschool placed bids of more than $100,000 per month to occupy the site in Harding Road, which came up for grabs in May this year.
St James' Church Kindergarten had bid $111,053 in the 2015 bidding exercise, when it was not yet under APS.
"If we are unsuccessful in our bid, we would have to either relocate to a different site, or distribute our pre-school children and staff across our other pre-schools," Dr Chung said, adding that no other site has a large outdoor space like Harding's.
APS runs 17 other pre-schools, including two other St James' Church Kindergarten campuses, one in Leedon Road and the other in Gilstead Road.
The Harding campus currently has 512 pupils enrolled in its three-hour and six-hour programmes - down from more than 800 pupils previously.
The pre-school had sized-down its intake in recent years as the lease was due to expire next year, said Dr Chung.
A petition started by parents of current and former pupils of the Harding campus had garnered more than 900 signatures as at Monday.
The parents are urging the authorities to take into consideration the "unique and valuable contributions" of the kindergarten and let it remain at its premises.
They also wrote to the SLA, ECDA, Ministry of Education, MSF and the Prime Minister's Office.
Six parents who signed the petition told ST the new site may not have a similar large outdoor area with lush greenery.
Housewife Vivian Goh, 40, enrolled her children, now aged four and six, at Harding when they were two years old.
The Harding campus currently has 512 pupils enrolled in its three-hour and six-hour programmes. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
She said she actively promoted the petition among other parents as "many children's educations are at stake".
"I've been anxiously checking SLA's website several times a day for the outcome of the tender," she said.
"It will affect my younger daughter, who is in Nursery 2 now. It's disheartening if she can't graduate alongside her friends."
Ms Natalie Chan, whose six-year-old eldest son is a Kindergarten 2 pupil at Harding, is concerned about her younger one-year-old son having to enrol at another pre-school.
"I love the idea of exposing my child to nature - big trees, and space to play and explore in an unkempt garden," said the 38-year-old leadership consultant.
She added that she is an alumni of the kindergarten herself, although she was not at the Harding campus.
Said Dr Chung: "Our journey at Harding took time to unfold, and it's a pity to have to start from scratch after developing (the campus) from the ground up.
"But even if we don't get the tender, I have the precious memories I will always carry with me."
No wonder Sinkies are stupid; it is because they do not have the quality of foundational education that FTs have. The poor Sinkies can only send their children to kindergartens run by the PAP.
Parents petition for lease renewal of the St James' Church Kindergarten in Dempsey
The campus in Harding Road is about the size of 17 Housing Board 5-room flats.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
Isabelle Liew
SEP 21, 2021
SINGAPORE - For the past 15 years, a single-storey house in the leafy Dempsey Road enclave has been home to a branch of St James' Church Kindergarten.
But the non-profit pre-school, which is linked to the Anglican church located off Holland Road, faces an uncertain future after next year.
Since 2015, the kindergarten has been paying $111,053 a month to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to rent four blocks with a combined space of 20,500 sq ft.
The campus in Harding Road - about the size of 17 Housing Board 5-room flats - also has a sprawling garden.
The lease ends on Dec 31 next year. Anglican Preschool Services (APS), which runs the kindergarten, has offered to pay $76,200 a month from 2023.
But it has been outbid by other pre-school operators, a check of the tender on the SLA website showed.
The result of the tender was to have been announced last Tuesday (Sept 14) but has been postponed to Dec 13, adding to the uncertainty, said parents.
When contacted, a spokesman for the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which oversees the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), said it could not comment as the tender was still being evaluated.
Bids for the property will be evaluated by price and quality, the ECDA spokesman said, with half the overall score based on bid price and the other half based on the quality of the kindergarten's programme, its affordability and track record.
Academic director and former principal of the kindergarten Jacqueline Chung told The Straits Times it was unable to match the bids made by other pre-school operators as it wanted to keep school fees affordable.
Fees range from around $1,700 to $2,600 per 10-week term.
A check on SLA's website showed that Kiddiwinkie Schoolhouse and Odyssey The Global Preschool placed bids of more than $100,000 per month to occupy the site in Harding Road, which came up for grabs in May this year.
St James' Church Kindergarten had bid $111,053 in the 2015 bidding exercise, when it was not yet under APS.
"If we are unsuccessful in our bid, we would have to either relocate to a different site, or distribute our pre-school children and staff across our other pre-schools," Dr Chung said, adding that no other site has a large outdoor space like Harding's.
APS runs 17 other pre-schools, including two other St James' Church Kindergarten campuses, one in Leedon Road and the other in Gilstead Road.
The Harding campus currently has 512 pupils enrolled in its three-hour and six-hour programmes - down from more than 800 pupils previously.
The pre-school had sized-down its intake in recent years as the lease was due to expire next year, said Dr Chung.
A petition started by parents of current and former pupils of the Harding campus had garnered more than 900 signatures as at Monday.
The parents are urging the authorities to take into consideration the "unique and valuable contributions" of the kindergarten and let it remain at its premises.
They also wrote to the SLA, ECDA, Ministry of Education, MSF and the Prime Minister's Office.
Six parents who signed the petition told ST the new site may not have a similar large outdoor area with lush greenery.
Housewife Vivian Goh, 40, enrolled her children, now aged four and six, at Harding when they were two years old.
She said she actively promoted the petition among other parents as "many children's educations are at stake".
"I've been anxiously checking SLA's website several times a day for the outcome of the tender," she said.
"It will affect my younger daughter, who is in Nursery 2 now. It's disheartening if she can't graduate alongside her friends."
Ms Natalie Chan, whose six-year-old eldest son is a Kindergarten 2 pupil at Harding, is concerned about her younger one-year-old son having to enrol at another pre-school.
"I love the idea of exposing my child to nature - big trees, and space to play and explore in an unkempt garden," said the 38-year-old leadership consultant.
She added that she is an alumni of the kindergarten herself, although she was not at the Harding campus.
Said Dr Chung: "Our journey at Harding took time to unfold, and it's a pity to have to start from scratch after developing (the campus) from the ground up.
"But even if we don't get the tender, I have the precious memories I will always carry with me."
