The Early Years Centre (EYC) route to a guaranteed K1 place

What the MK-EYC partnership is

If the balloting uncertainty of MK registration worries you, there is one route that sidesteps it: the MOE Kindergarten-Early Years Centre (MK-EYC) pathway. MOE partners with three anchor operators, E-Bridge, NTUC My First Skool and PCF Sparkletots, to run Early Years Centres that take younger children and feed directly into a linked MOE Kindergarten. An EYC can take a child from as young as 2 months; the partnership route is for children enrolled between 2 months and 4 years, before the K1 and K2 years at the partner MK.

The guarantee, precisely

A Singapore Citizen or PR child enrolled in a partner EYC by 15 March of their Nursery 2 (N2) year is offered a K1 place at the partner MOE Kindergarten, provided they register via the EYC registration form during the MK Registration Exercise. No balloting, no distance bands. This is the only genuine guarantee in the MK system: a sibling link gives priority but not certainty, and everyone else goes through Open Admissions.

A worked example

Say you live in Punggol and want the MK in your area. You enrol your child in a Punggol partner EYC before 15 March of their N2 year, then submit the EYC registration form during that year's MK Registration Exercise. Your child is guaranteed a K1 place at the partner MK, while families going through Open Admissions at the same MK may face a ballot. The earlier, surer path costs you the higher EYC childcare fees in the younger years, in exchange for removing the K1 uncertainty.

The one real limitation

The partnership is wide but not universal: 43 MOE Kindergartens across all five regions have a partner EYC, but not every MK does. So the guaranteed route hinges on two things: whether the MK you want is one of the 43, and whether its partner EYC is somewhere you can realistically enrol your child for the younger years. If a specific MK is your goal and it has a partner EYC nearby, enrolling early and staying in by the N2 deadline is the surest way in. If it does not, the guaranteed route is not available for that MK, and you register through the normal exercise. Use the list below to check.

Find a partner EYC for your MOE Kindergarten

These are the 43 MOE Kindergartens that currently have a partner Early Years Centre, from MOE's official listing. Search and pin an MK to compare, or filter by region or area to find yours, and see which EYCs feed into it, its host primary school and how the host's 2025 P1 balloting went. If an MK is not here, it does not offer the guaranteed EYC route.

What it costs

For the younger EYC years (infant care through Nursery), you pay the operator's childcare fee, which is higher than the flat MK fee but eligible for ECDA childcare subsidies (with more for working mothers and lower-income families). Once your child moves into K1 and K2 at the partner MK, the usual MK fees apply, S$160/month for Citizens and S$320/month for PRs, and eligible Citizen families can lower that further through KiFAS.

New to MOE Kindergarten as a whole? Start with our MOE Kindergarten guide, or see how the annual intake works in the K1 registration guide.