Childcare centres in Singapore will no longer have to operate on Saturdays from 2025, effectively giving early childhood educators a five-day work week.

The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) announced the move on July 12 to improve working conditions for the sector to make it more attractive, among other efforts.

Saturday childcare will no longer be available for new enrolments starting from 2024.

Childcare centres now have the option of phasing out Saturday operations beginning in 2024 if they see a lack of demand.

Operators with multiple centres can still keep some centres open on Saturdays and deploy a smaller pool of teachers.

A survey found that 98 per cent of families using preschool services do not need them on Saturdays, CNA reported.

There was general consensus among more than 8,000 parents surveyed that closing childcare centres on Saturdays would enable educators to have better work-life balance and improve their well-being.

“The expectation to work on Saturdays weighs down on educators, who want to spend more time with their families on weekends and recharge,” Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said at an event organised by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA).

The small number of families who require care arrangements on Saturdays as both parents may be working, as well as preschools, parents, and employers will have sufficient time to work out the arrangements in the meantime.

The move to make early childhood education a more attractive career choice is to facilitate the the goal of adding at least 2,500 employees to the over 24,000-strong workforce in the sector, which has seen demand grow over the years.

Other changes afoot include plans to make teachers' pay more competitive, build bigger childcare centres, and provide more resources to improve teaching and preschool programmes.

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