Parents affected by termination of Little Professors service can send kids to student care centres at no cost: MOE

Following the termination of after-school care Little Professors Learning Centre (LPLC) in eight Ministry of Education (MOE) schools, MOE said they will review the processes undertaken when hiring after-school care centres.

LPLC's contract with the schools were terminated by MOE on the week of Feb. 14 after allegations of non-payment, including of CPF contributions, surfaced from care centre staff.

Schools have reached out to affected parents and assured them that they can continue to send their children to the Student Care Centre (SCC) or KCare "at no cost."

Selection process to be reviewed

MOE's Deputy Director-General of Education and Director of Schools Tan Chen Kee spoke to the media on Feb. 20, 2026 and said that the acquisition process of student care operators in schools will be reviewed.

Currently, operators go through a public tender system via the public procurement structure, with checks on the financial viability of the company at the point of consideration of appointment.

There is a degree of self-evaluation on the part of the schools, who can flag incidents where programme quality or staff performance is lacking.

MOE steps in when serious breaches are noted, but are otherwise not currently involved in the evaluation process.

Tan said both the selection and monitoring mechanisms will be reviewed, and the ministry is in the process of "learning from this incident" so that it does not repeat itself.

"We are working through whether or not there are other warning signals and warning systems that we can put in place for us to suss out some of these other areas that will impact the service delivery."

For now, ensuring the 1,800 affected children across all eight schools are taken care of and engaging a new care operator for each school as soon as possible remains the priority, she said.

School staff stepped in

In the meantime, school staff have stepped in to take on after-school caregiving roles previously performed by LPLC.

Tan highlighted the efforts of the ex-staff of LPLC, who continued to return to the school in order to care for the children, demonstrating their strong bonds.

"We continue to want to extend that support to ex-LPLC staff. We are working with the Ministry of Manpower as well as NTUC to see what can be done for them. For example, job-matching through manpower services."

She added that despite the busy period, with Chinese New Year and Ramadan preparations, other school staff also stepped forward to ensure that care for the children was not compromised.

Tan said that MOE is working to find a replacement operator and working with schools to activate "other resources" to reduce the imposition on the school staff.

Interim arrangements

During a Feb. 20 school visit to Jing Shan Primary School, one of the eight affected primary schools, Mothership observed that key personnel, particularly heads of departments, now run student care programmes for students between Primary One and Primary Six.

These include homework supervision, conducting after-school activities and scheduling students’ snack times when student care operations starts at 1:30pm every day.

While the arrangement is meant to fill the absence of a designated student-care centre in the interim, the school’s principal Sharon Siew emphasised that teachers do not perform the same roles as care centre staff, and that the school will continue to search for another operator in the meantime.

She added that with 90 staff rotating on a 10-man team per day, the workload is "really manageable".

The school, in which LPLC has operated since 2021, sees about 210 students in student care and 80 students in kindergarten care (KCare), who are cared for by teachers from MOE Kindergarten (MK@JingShan).

Background

At least 54 employees have lodged salary claims against LPLC, with alleged outstanding CPF contributions dating as far back as December 2025.

CPF Board has taken prosecution action against the centre and the case is currently before the courts

LPLC is also currently under police investigation, after parents reported instances of alleged double GIRO deductions on Feb. 13.

LPLC staff members previously told Mothership that staff contracts were abruptly voided, student care centres were allegedly left unmanned and the company's director is said to have become uncontactable.

Top images via Little Professors/Facebook & Mothership