SINGAPORE - Parents of young children can now locate pre-schools more easily with a new search feature on government mobile app LifeSG, which will allow them to shortlist centres within 2km of their homes.

From end-2024, parents will also be able to apply for pre-school subsidies on the same app, reducing the time spent on such applications that are currently done manually via lengthy hard copy or electronic forms.

Previously, parents would use the Early Childhood Development Agency’s (ECDA) Pre-school Search Portal to indicate their interest in up to 10 pre-schools of their choice. The pre-schools would then either contact parents to offer enrolment or place them on a wait list if the centre was full.

The online portal was discontinued on Jan 15.

Hosted on LifeSG, the new pre-school search feature allows parents to search among more than 1,900 pre-schools that are licensed and registered with ECDA, including kindergartens run by the Ministry of Education.

Apart from being able to set a default search radius of 2km from their home, workplace or caregiver’s home, parents can also filter results according to pre-school level, vacancies, fees, mother tongue language availability, food and provision of transport.

The contact details of the shortlisted pre-schools will be provided in the search results so that parents can liaise with them directly, instead of waiting for the pre-schools to contact them.

Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling announced the new pre-school search feature and pre-school subsidy application feature on May 3 at the launch event and 10th anniversary celebration of Start Small Dream Big – a movement by ECDA for the President’s Challenge to inculcate good values in children.

Speaking to media at the event, Ms Sun said the search for pre-schools should be easily accessible and convenient for parents.

New parents will be familiar with LifeSG as they need to use it to apply for baby bonuses, said Ms Sun.

The app is also used to register the birth of children.

“Having the information on searching for pre-schools and vacancies on that same app, we believe, will provide a lot of convenience for parents,” said Ms Sun, adding that ECDA is working closely with pre-schools to update their available vacancies on a monthly basis.

Madam Lucinda Neo, 35, recounted the difficulty she had placing her firstborn in infant care, although she had started looking for vacancies while pregnant in July 2022.

Despite starting her search early, she found it tough to secure a spot for her daughter, who is now 18 months old. The previous search portal was not user-friendly, she said, as it was difficult to navigate and explore different pre-school options and make her way back to the home page without losing all the personal information she had to enter.

She was also unsure how long the wait lists for the shortlisted pre-schools were, as that information was not available online.

She had to resort to going down to the pre-schools personally to ask about vacancies.

“After confinement, I had to go back to work. So basically, I had to employ an interim nanny for about three months. This was to cope with the lack of answers from all the centres that I had e-mailed,” said Madam Neo, a financial planner with Great Eastern.

She took part in an ECDA review on pre-school search and shared her struggles. She suggested improvements she wanted to see as part of the newly launched search feature, such as updated information on waiting lists and vacancies.

She is expecting her second child and is confident that when she searches for a pre-school in 2025, it will be less troublesome.

“It’s now easier to find the contact information of all the pre-schools and get information about vacancies as well. It’s definitely a lot more helpful,” said Madam Neo, who has tried the new search feature on LifeSG.

On the LifeSG app, parents can use Singpass’ Myinfo data to pre-fill subsidy applications for pre-schools where possible. The app will automatically notify parents on the status of their applications.

Currently, pre-schools act as intermediaries and submit subsidy application forms to ECDA after parents have filled out hard copy or online forms. Pre-schools then manually enter the completed forms’ details into ECDA’s system.

ECDA typically informs parents of the application outcome within one to four weeks from the date of submission of the application.

Under the new subsidy application process, ECDA will reach out directly to parents for required documents instead of through the pre-schools, which would cut the waiting time.

ECDA will conduct a pilot for the use of the new pre-school subsidy application feature with 28 pre-schools from My First Skool and E-Bridge Pre-School from mid-2024.

Subsequently, the feature will be rolled out progressively to parents from other pre-schools from end-2024.