2020 reminded us that we live in a fast-changing world in which we need to be agile and adaptable. At NTUC First Campus, our team worked quickly to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, and also innovate practices in order to continue supporting the families, children and employees who are at the heart of all that we do.
Our social mission is to partner families and give every child access to high-quality education and a good start in life. We served more families across our 170 pre-school and student care centres in Singapore with enrolment growing from 22,000 to 23,500 children despite the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions. In addition, we increased the number of initiatives to provide extra support to our working families and low-income families, who may face greater challenges during this time.
We also continued to look after the well-being and professional development of our employees and were awarded one of the “Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2020” at the HR Asia Awards for the second year running.
We continue to keep our focus on achieving our mission, which in 2020 was supported by our focus on “Supporting Families and Reimagining Learning”.
Supporting Families
As a social enterprise, NFC plays a leading role in supporting the needs of working families and children. In 2020, we continued to grow our network of centres around Singapore and increased our enrolment by 7% compared to the previous year. My First Skool (MFS) started operations at a 690-capacity centre at Rivervale Crescent. The Little Skool-House (LSH) continues to serve some 2,000 children in 20 centres around Singapore. Our student care service, afterschool, also continues to see strong support from families, with a 20% increase in enrolment from 2019 to 2020.
In 2020, we ramped up support for families through our holistic Child Support Model, providing financial, learning & development and social assistance to families who may face greater challenges during this difficult year. For example, we initiated the $500,000 “Bright Horizons Fund Care Package for COVID-19”, waiving 100% of the school fees for six months for eligible families who experienced a reduction in household income or loss of job.
As we started to embrace an omni-channel approach to enable children to learn through the COVID-19 period, we saw that there were low-income families with children in MFS who lacked the necessary digital devices and know-how. When we launched the Digital Kampung Programme to loan Apple iPads to these families, parents stepped forward and picked up new digital skills to stay engaged in their child’s pre-school journey. Through these devices, the children were able to access learning opportunities and resources conveniently.
Meanwhile, during the circuit breaker, our Learning Support Educators also started tele-intervention sessions to continue to support children with learning and development needs and maintain close engagement with parents.
In total, we spent $16 million in 2020 to help our families through NFC’s wide range of initiatives, programmes and assistance.
Reimagining Learning and Engagement
In line with our goal to provide children with access to high-quality pre-school education, we swiftly adapted to the fluid situation during COVID-19 and came up with innovative ways to support their learning and development.
During the circuit breaker, our children were able to continue their learning even at home with daily online classes. When schools physically resumed, we continued to develop our digital capabilities, complementing the physical lessons. Parents have access to online resources on topics such as keeping their children engaged and enabling them to continue learning at home.
One of these tools is NFC’s very own KidzMatters – a centralised one-stop portal where we and our anchor operator partners provide specially curated and compelling home learning resources for children.
MFS and LSH also quickly developed interactive online learning resources and videos on platforms such as YouTube, covering various topics such as music and movement, enabling children to learn at home. Our pre-schools also continued to actively engage children at home through activities like storytelling sessions and engaged parents through events such as online festive celebrations.
We organised “Discovery Day 2020” to help our parents and educators pick up learning strategies relevant to the current environment. Through online workshops, they could learn more about topics such as inculcating safe digital literacy habits in children.
These efforts helped to support our children’s learning during the circuit breaker period and beyond, ensuring that their access to high-quality pre-school resources and education was uninterrupted.
Leading the Way in the Early Childhood Sector
Our staff strength has continued to grow over the years and we now have over 5,300 staff and educators serving our NFC children and families. We continue to invest in our workforce to equip them with the best practices, as we believe that our success begins with their well-being and capability.
In 2020, we partnered the Singapore University of Social Services (SUSS) on the Early Childhood Educational Leadership (ECEL) programme to empower our Deputy Centre Leaders and Lead Teachers to become more effective leaders. This programme is the first-of-its-kind in the early childhood care and education sector. The first batch of leaders will be completing their course later in 2021 and we look forward to them taking the quality of practices at our centres to greater heights.
NFC staff also excelled at the national level and received recognition for their professional achievements through 27 industry-wide awards. These include the ECDA Awards for Excellence in Early Childhood Development 2020, the Outstanding Pre-school Mother Tongue Language Teacher Awards 2020, the Pre-school Chinese Language Storytelling Aids Competition Awards 2020 as well as the Singapore Rhymes Competition 2020. We are very proud of their achievements.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank members of the NFC Board for their invaluable inputs and guidance. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Tan Cheng Han, NFC’s former Chairman, as well as Mr Arasu Duraisamy, who have stepped down from our board. We welcome the appointment of Mr Andy Lim, as our new Director.
In addition, we would also like to express our appreciation for the efforts of NFC’s former CEO Mr Chan Tee Seng, who helmed the organisation for 11 years. Mr Chan grew NFC’s network of pre-school centres and enrolment extensively and led the organisation to be a leader in the early childhood sector in Singapore.
Our successes would not have been possible without the support and partnership of the National Trades Union Congress, NTUC Enterprise, the Education Services Union, and our community and Government partners.
We thank the many parents who have chosen NFC as your education partner of choice. Most of all, we thank our staff, for your dedication and hard work.
2020 put us to the test but also challenged us to turn uncertainties into opportunities and to innovate responsively in the way we support our families and children. We will continue to push ahead on supporting families, reimagining learning and enabling every child to have access to quality preschool education and a good start in life.
