Are Expensive Preschools Really Better For Your Child? Here's What I Found After Visiting Over 10 Centres

When it comes to managing your budget, one of the first things I always advise parents to do is to look at how much you’re spending on your child’s school fees and enrichment activities. 

After all, for most parents in Singapore, that is typically where our biggest cost often lies.

When it came to choosing a preschool for my child, I visited at least 10 different preschools to cut through the marketing spiel and figure out which would be the best preschool for my child and our household.

What I’ve learned is that price differences mostly came down to several factors:

• Location and facilities
• The operator’s teaching approach or methodologies
• Extracurricular activities
• The teacher-to-child ratio

Location and facilities

Preschools located near or within private estates (landed homes or condominiums) tend to charge more, while those housed under a HDB block charge much less.

The space and facilities also naturally differ. Other than a sprawling campus, many private preschools often also come with their own outdoor areas for the children to run around in, and even sport lavish equipment such as a trampoline, a sandpit, or their own playgrounds. Classrooms are often air-conditioned, with a wider range of toys (especially wooden ones, which are favoured in the Montessori approach of child-led learning) and indoor pets or plants.

Differences in curriculum

Some parents are willing to pay a premium for certain branded teaching methodologies. Montessori, the Reggio Emilia methodology, the Whole Brain Learning approach and the Multiple Intelligences are just some of the different curriculum types offered by different preschools. At this moment, there is still no conclusive evidence that tells us which one is the best one for a child, so you will have to decide whether you think these are all just marketing gimmicks or an educational method that you truly believe in for your child.

The biggest difference perhaps lies in the variety and extent of extracurricular activities offered. When I asked my friends and colleagues why they were willing to pay up to $3,000 a month for their child’s preschool fee, they told me that they valued the extracurricular activities included in the school’s schedule, which gives their children exposure to art, music, dance, speech and drama, or more. 

My friends and colleagues who pay more than $2,000 a month for their children often talk about how their kids get to bake, learn the piano or violin or ride a horse. These can indeed be helpful if you wish to save time and mind-space from having to source different providers externally for your child by yourself outside of school hours.

To add on to the appeal, some elite preschools even engage former national athletes to teach the children sports, or professional artistes to teach speech and drama classes. If you believe that this leads to better child performance as well, then it is not surprising that you’d be more willing to pay for it.

Outings and graduation vary too

Excursions for the children are also held more frequently, in contrast to my child’s government-supported preschool where the minimum frequency is once every 3 months.

The graduation ceremonies are also different in scale and prestige. At many of the premium preschools, the graduating K2s get to put on a performance on a stage or even an auditorium for the parents and their family members to see. But in a government-supported preschool, these will usually be held outdoors at the nearest pavilion or basketball court instead.

Is there a difference in learning outcomes? That depends on how you feel.

A smaller teacher-to-child ratio

But perhaps what’s most striking is the level of attention your child receives in school, as the teacher-to-child ratio in pricier preschools are also much smaller.

With a smaller teacher-to-student ratio, your child can get more attention and support throughout the day. You will also get more frequent updates about your child’s performance and behaviour from the teachers, since more teaching assistants also mean they have more bandwidth to do these report updates for you

However, these naturally cost more from a human resource perspective. For preschools that charge less, they also have less monetary resources to hire more staff and bring down the teacher-to-child ratio, so it is a trade-off you have to consider.

As a former tutor myself, I’m of the belief that having more one-on-one attention may not necessarily be more beneficial. Instead of always having a teacher to guide them all the time, what about letting our children interact with their peers and come up with their own ways to entertain and learn from one another?

At this age where they are learning socio-emotional skills, we value this more than academic excellence at a young age.

Intangible benefits of elite preschools

Aside from what’s offered in the curriculum and school compounds, there are also other intangible benefits to sending your child to a more expensive preschool.

Some parents view paying higher fees as an “investment” into networking. The prohibitive pricing and luxury branding also means that those who can afford it are typically the ones whose parents earn a substantial income (or are perhaps recipients of a hefty inheritance). Being classmates with these people’s kids means that you often get invited to their kid’s birthday parties, which is where you can get to network and build your connections.

And the harsh reality is, you won’t get invited to these if your child isn’t friends with their children. Unless you already have these connections and know these people from elsewhere. 

This comes at a steep cost.

Paying $2,000 to $3,000 a month (even after a $300 working mother’s subsidy from the government) adds up to $72,000 over three years, which is more than enough to put your child through local university, an overseas exchange study, and with excess cash left to spare.

So are expensive preschools really worth it?

There is a strong body of research that has concluded the crucial role of high-quality early childhood education in nurturing high-performing adults. Studies suggest that 85 per cent of the brain develops before the age of 5 and that begins to form a complex network of connections during this period. Early childhood education is believed to translate into better academic performance, healthier emotional and social development later in life, and often, higher future earnings.

It is no wonder that this has caused loving and kanchiong parents to stress out over having to give their child the best head start in life.

But paying extra for an expensive preschool may not necessarily be the solution.

Aside from affordability, it is worth noting that the Singapore government has started investing heavily in early childhood education in recent years, which is helping government-supported preschools to gradually close the gap with their premium counterparts.

When it comes to offering extra-curricular activities, for instance, many anchor operators now offer optional extra-curricular activities on weekdays outside of curriculum hours. 

My son attends My First Skool, where we can choose from after-school activities such as Robotics, Chinese Speech and Drama, Abacus, or even Akido (Japanese martial arts) at an extra $100+ each a month.

And when it comes to size and facilities, the newest My First Skool located at 3 Pasir Ris Drive boasts a sprawling campus complete with safe play zones for the children to run around. Its branch at 2 Punggol Drive even includes five play zones, such as an outdoor playground with a bamboo igloo, a water play area, and a forest play zone with a treehouse.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, my advice as a finance blogger is to choose a preschool based on 3 priorities:

1.  You and your child’s needs
2. Location
3. Budget 

I cannot stress this enough. If you are a parent who has little time for your child after work and on weekends, then you may find it worth your while to pay for the convenience of all-in activities offered by more expensive preschools.

Or, if you are a parent who needs to network extensively for your job (especially if you’re in sales), then having access to richer parents via your child’s preschool could also be a worthwhile investment…provided you’re able to convert these opportunities into actual dollars.

In this competitive Singapore society where we are hard-pressed to give our children the best head start in life, be careful of being lulled into paying more than what you can realistically afford. 

Of course, if you search for parent reviews online, you’ll find that some claim their child is more eloquent and better-mannered because they went to a private school where their peers are seemingly from the higher echelons of society. But readers beware; be mindful of the “sunk cost fallacy” - no one will willingly admit they paid thousands a month (for a premium preschool) as a stupid decision.

But if you are a parent limited by your budget (especially if you have multiple preschool-age children to support), there is no shame in sending your child to a cheaper preschool. 

What’s more, with the quality of government-supported preschools today, the differences between children taught in these schools versus their private counterpart peers have significantly narrowed. You’ll see and understand this for yourself once your children go to primary school. This was something that parents of older kids have told me as well.

You can also support your child by spending quality time with them and enrolling them for external enrichment classes that you deem necessary on the weekends. More importantly, when you are less stressed out financially, your child gets a better parent.

Research has proven that children thrive best when their parents are engaged and supportive. This is something that you cannot buy with money, but have to pay with your own time and effort.

Dawn Cher is a mother of two boys and the founder of financial blog SG Budget Babe. Due to budget and convenience, she chose to send her two sons to a government-supported preschool operator, My First Skool. She spends at least three hours a week teaching her children and pays extra for right-brain training at Heguru and swim classes, mostly on weekends.