MOE Kindergarten: Fees, Hours and How Registration Works

MOE Kindergarten (MK) runs four-hour K1 and K2 sessions, either 8am to 12pm or 1pm to 5pm, for Singapore Citizen and PR children. In 2026 the monthly fee is S$160 for citizens and S$320 for PRs. Full-day care (KCare) has its own fee, up to S$425 a month, with subsidies for citizen children.

MOE registers children for K1 places in the following year through an online exercise. The 2026 exercise, for K1 admission in 2027, ran from 9am on 23 March to 4.30pm on 31 March 2026. As of 17 October 2026, the MOE pages read for this guide show no dates for the next exercise.

This guide sets out the costs, the priority order and a registration calendar so you can plan ahead. It is general information, not advice on which kindergarten to choose.

What are MOE Kindergarten hours, and what is KCare?

The MK programme is four hours a day, so it does not cover a full working day on its own. According to the MK overview, you can choose a morning or an afternoon session.

For a longer day, Kindergarten Care (KCare) is offered at every MK, before and after the MK session in the same premises. It runs Monday to Friday until 7pm, including school holidays, and includes meals. It is closed on public holidays, Teachers’ Day, Children’s Day and up to 6 additional days a year. The page gives no opening time, so ask the MK. If your child is not yet enrolled in an MK, you indicate a KCare preference when you register.

What does MOE Kindergarten cost in 2026?

The fees page gives the 2026 monthly fee as S$160 for Singapore Citizens and S$320 for PRs. Fees are also payable during the June and December holidays, and there are no additional out-of-pocket expenses for complementary programmes such as field trips.

The page does not say how many months are billed. If the fee is charged in all twelve months, which is our assumption and not an MOE statement, a full year would come to the totals below. Ask the MK for its billing schedule.

• Citizen: S$160 × 12 = S$1,920 a year (our arithmetic)
• PR: S$320 × 12 = S$3,840 a year (our arithmetic)

The uniform comes from one of two suppliers MOE lists. At the prices on that page (updated 12 May 2026), Beau Voix Uniform charges S$7 for a polo and S$7 for khaki shorts or a skort (S$14), and Jeep Sing Fashion charges S$7 and S$8 (S$15). The page does not say how many sets a child needs.

Citizen children may qualify for the Kindergarten Fee Assistance Scheme (KiFAS), provided by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA). It applies only to MK school fees; KCare has its own subsidies, covered below. For primary school, see our MOE Financial Assistance Scheme and Edusave guide.

What is the KCare fee at an MOE Kindergarten?

The 2026 maximum is S$425 a month, also payable in the June and December holidays. All Singapore Citizen children get a basic subsidy of S$150 a month, and an additional subsidy is tiered by household income (MOE provides an interactive calculator, which was not read for this guide). The page does not show how the subsidy is applied, so the sums below are our arithmetic, assuming the S$150 comes off the maximum fee and that the KCare fee is paid on top of the school fee. For a citizen child, before any additional subsidy or KiFAS:

• KCare: S$425 − S$150 = up to S$275 a month
• School fee plus KCare: S$160 + S$275 = up to S$435 a month for a full day

MOE describes the S$425 as a maximum, so what a particular MK charges may be lower. The page states the S$150 subsidy for citizen children only. For a PR child, on the same assumptions, the ceiling would be S$320 + S$425 = up to S$745 a month, unless a subsidy applies that the page does not list, so ask the MK.

How does MOE Kindergarten priority admission work?

For Open Admissions, MOE’s priority admission page (updated 29 April 2026) allocates places in this order:

1. PO 1: one third of places are reserved for Singapore Citizen children from households with gross household income (GHI) of up to S$4,500 a month, or per capita income (PCI) of up to S$1,125 a month, who live within 1 km of the kindergarten.
2. PO 2: citizen and PR children with siblings studying in K1 to P6 in the MK or primary school in the year of registration.
3. PO 3: all citizen children.
4. PO 4: all PR children.

In PO 3 and PO 4, children of staff at the MK or primary school are considered first.

GHI is the combined monthly income of everyone related to the child by blood, marriage or legal relations who lives at the same address, including grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. PCI is GHI divided by the number of household members. Employment income counts, including bonuses, allowances and the employee’s CPF contributions, as does other taxable administrative income, such as rental income, dividends and taxable investment income. National Service allowance, severance compensation, insurance payouts and alimony for a child or ex-spouse do not. If you register under PO 1, MOE retrieves the figures itself from the Government Household Means Eligibility System (HOMES), which draws on IRAS and CPF Board records, and the MK contacts you if it needs clarification.

Either income test is enough. Three illustrative households with a citizen child show how the sums work; the numbers are invented:

• Household 1: five people (two parents, the child, two grandparents) at one address, combined income S$5,400 a month. GHI is above S$4,500, but PCI is S$5,400 ÷ 5 = S$1,080, within S$1,125. At 800 m from the MK, the child meets PO 1.
• Household 2: four people, combined income S$5,200. GHI is above the limit and PCI is S$5,200 ÷ 4 = S$1,300, also above. The child does not meet PO 1 and is considered at PO 3, or PO 2 if a sibling qualifies.
• Household 3: the same as Household 1, but the MK is 1.3 km away. The income test is met and the distance test is not, so PO 1 does not apply.

MOE’s own worked examples and eligibility checker are interactive and were not read, so run your household through the checker rather than relying on this arithmetic.

If applicants outnumber vacancies, MOE says balloting considers citizenship (where applicable) and then distance: children within 500 m first, then 500 m to 1 km, then 1 km or more. An MK generally takes up to about 140 children.

When is MK registration, and when is the next one?

“MK registration 2027” can mean the exercise held in March 2026 for K1 places in 2027, or an exercise in 2027 for K1 places in 2028, which has not been announced. This is the confirmed calendar for the first, from the 11 February 2026 press release and the registration page (updated 14 May 2026):

• 11 February 2026: MOE announced the exercise, nearly six weeks before registration opened.
• 7–28 March 2026: open houses at the 57 participating MKs, including MK@Rivervale, which opens in 2027.
• 9am Monday 23 March to 4.30pm Tuesday 31 March 2026: online registration for citizen and PR children born 2 January 2022 to 1 January 2023, both dates inclusive.
• By Monday 1 June 2026: outcome by email. If your child is offered a place, you accept online through a link in that email by the deadline it states.

The pages read give no dates for the next exercise, and the month has varied: MOE’s earlier releases show registration from 16 to 20 February 2024 (18 January 2024 release) and from 7 to 17 February 2025 (16 January 2025 release), before March in 2026. Our inference, not an MOE announcement: the next exercise would be announced in January or February 2027 and run in February or March 2027, for children born one year later, 2 January 2023 to 1 January 2024. Confirm the dates and birth range on MOE’s registration page, which has a birth-date checker; our birth-date chart for K1 and Primary 1 explains how the cohorts work. Our free K1 and Primary 1 year finder works out K1 and P1 years from a birth date.

Three other routes:

• Early Years Centres: citizen and PR children enrolled in an EYC run by E-Bridge, NTUC My First Skool or PCF Sparkletots by 15 March of their Nursery 2 year are offered a K1 place in a partner MK if they register through the EYC form during the exercise (MOE’s MK-EYC page, updated 13 February 2026).
• Outside the window: the press release says parents seeking K1 or K2 admission outside the registration period should contact the MK directly to check for vacancies. MOE’s how-to-register page (updated 12 May 2026) adds that K2 admission depends on available places; its opening line still refers to 2026 K1 admissions, so use the registration page above for dates.
• Primary school: the press release says MK children have priority admission to the primary school where the MK is located, in Phase 2A of the Primary 1 Registration Exercise, subject to vacancies; no place is assured. For the phases, see our Primary 1 registration explainer.

What to check before you register

• Our suggestion: look at MOE’s MK registration page from early January 2027, since MOE announced the exercise on 18 January 2024, 16 January 2025 and 11 February 2026.
• Enter your child’s birth date in MOE’s registration-year checker, and use MOE’s SchoolFinder to find MKs near you; in 2026 each MK’s open-house date was listed in an annex to MOE’s press release.
• List who lives at your address, since relatives count towards GHI and PCI, then run MOE’s PO 1 checker.
• Check whether an older child is already in K1 to P6 at the MK or its primary school in the year you register (PO 2).
• Decide whether you need KCare, and ask the MK for its current school fee, KCare fee and any subsidy.

Put the January check, and a reminder for the likely February to March window (our inference), somewhere you look weekly; our weekly family admin routine shows one way. If another child starts Primary 1 on Monday 4 January 2027 (MOE’s 2027 school terms release, published 14 July 2026), see our Primary 1 practice routine. Term dates are in our MOE school terms and holidays 2027 calendar, and more school guides are under learning.

Common questions