Pat's Schoolhouse

[GLORYmum]

" A new statutory board to oversee Pre School Education " - PM Lee Hsien Loong.


Does this include regulation on the fees?

[dardar63]

GLORYmum:

\" A new statutory board to oversee Pre School Education \" - PM Lee Hsien Loong.


Does this include regulation on the fees?

by time this takes place i think my DD already primary school

[breezie80]

woodstock07:

I also received the notice of price increase from Aroozoo last week.


I'm going to speak to Anita this week about the price increase and understanding the reasons, etc. If I don't get a satisfied answer, I'll request for a meeting with Patricia Koh. If enough parents make noise, they will feel the heat. There is little effect if we simply complain on this forum. I'll have 2 kids going to Aroozoo from 2013 onwards and am quite concerned with the situation.

Hi Woodstock and other displeased parents from Aroozoo,

We should organise a meeting with Anita to voice our displeasure at the fee increases. And also at the absurdity of giving an advanced one month school fee for existing students to secure a place for 2013!

We should not be at the mercy of Knowledge Universe!

[woodstock07]

breezie80:

woodstock07:

I also received the notice of price increase from Aroozoo last week.


I'm going to speak to Anita this week about the price increase and understanding the reasons, etc. If I don't get a satisfied answer, I'll request for a meeting with Patricia Koh. If enough parents make noise, they will feel the heat. There is little effect if we simply complain on this forum. I'll have 2 kids going to Aroozoo from 2013 onwards and am quite concerned with the situation.

Hi Woodstock and other displeased parents from Aroozoo,

We should organise a meeting with Anita to voice our displeasure at the fee increases. And also at the absurdity of giving an advanced one month school fee for existing students to secure a place for 2013!

We should not be at the mercy of Knowledge Universe!

breezie80, I have sent you a PM.

[jetsetter]

Hi parents,

I was so busy at work that I didn’t log in to check on the sentiments of other parents. My husband felt that the teachers need to get their increment and bonus after 1 year of hardwork, and if we need to retain good teachers, we gotta pay! faintzzz…I did research on some past case studies and complaints and also came across that Mr James Tan who was rallying support from like minded parents. The answer he got from MCYS was the preschool had to give advance notice if there is a fee hike. In this case, PSH was strategic is asking from us 4 mths before the new fee kicks in. Can you fault them when the Govt is turning a blind eye on such practices? I called the school and they explained the stationery etc need money, so they are upping the fees. Anyway, I am toying with the idea of transferring to Kinderland, but I’m a FTWM, so I need a full day cc not a 3 hr kindy…One of the parents above pointed out that the teacher/school might treat my child differently if I kick up a big fuss. I suspected this might be the case as well. Haha! I wonder if PSH would become one of those AOPs that PM highlighted last night. Or maybe Kinderland, who knows? A separate stat board to look after preschools might be better. And we should get the CEO of that new stat board to put in checks and balances to ensure preschools don’t anyhow increase their fees, and if they do, give the government a laundry list of cost increases, and stipulate an advance timeframe preschools need to give parents if they increase the fees. Ensure all teachers must possess certain qualifications…Maybe they should also consider giving us FTWM more subsidy instead of $300 per mth. If I’m going to sacrifice quality time with my child during his formative years and dump him in the care of cc teachers and aunties, and the Govt keeps asking women to stay in the workforce, they better give us incentives to keep us working! LOL

[empressplace]

I was also displeased with the fee increase. However if you look around you, you will find that increased costs and inflation is a fact of life, not just in Singapore but around the world. No thanks to QE in US and China. Good childcare in Beijing, for example, is as expensive as, if not more so, than Singapore.


We have also increased our population rather rapidly in the last 5 years. This puts pressure on key assets and manpower needs. There are some real issues on the ground with regards to preschools and childcare that affect parents across all social economic strata, including surprisingly those who are prepared to pay the fees of a premium childcare. On a practical note, I am not so certain that the problems can be solved/improved quickly or significantly in the next few years before our kids go to primary school.

For those who plan to stay, I think we should focus on ensuring PSH delivers good quality in the face of mounting inflationary and manpower pressures.

[footix]

My child is also in PSH Aroozoo and they have a long wait list. If you’re not willing to pay, I’m sure the long wait list will be.

[breezie80]

I think it’s more of the long wait list tat they think they can afford to increase the school fees.

[ConcernedDaddy]

Exactly. This is simple supply and demand. For every parent who is unhappy about fee increase and threatens to withdraw, there will be ten other parents waiting for a slot. So Why would a profit making business, who is ultimately responsible to their shareholders/investors not consider increasing fees regularly?


The logical business decision is to increase fees to the point where marginal demand meets supply, which is when there is no or minimal waiting list.

This is just how a free market works, nothing right or wrong.

[Karkar]

footix:

My child is also in PSH Aroozoo and they have a long wait list. If you're not willing to pay, I'm sure the long wait list will be.

i just gave up mine in PSH serangoon. not due to the fee increase. they really do have a long list, they didnt ask me why i gave up..haha...dont even treat it as a chance for further improvement. with the long list, they simply don't care. i get the part of teacher retention part that they need to increase fee, maybe rental too. the women who called me was very polite though.