Building an enrichment nation in Singapore’s north-east

SINGAPORE – On a Saturday morning, the bustling heart of Punggol’s Northshore Plaza is not the mall’s enormous Decathlon store or the McDonald’s. Instead, the lively epicentre is the mall’s third-floor Learn and Play Zone.

When The Straits Times arrives, Punggol resident Samantha Ong is peering through the glass window of enrichment centre Tree Art as her four-year-old daughter Yun Jie creates her latest masterpiece.

Ms Ong later mentions her concern about her only child’s ability to cope without her during the lesson, but it is clear that she, too, feels the pang of separation.

She is not alone, being among dozens of parents who line the hallways, waving and cooing at their children. A parade of kids will rush out after class to show off their artwork to waiting parents.

This heartland scene is playing out in the dedicated enrichment and education zone in Northshore Plaza, a “new-generation neighbourhood centre” that opened in 2021.

All six of these new neighbourhood centres (NCs), with the exception of Canberra Plaza in Sembawang, are in Singapore’s north-east neighbourhoods of Hougang, Buangkok, Sengkang and Punggol – fast-developing areas that are seeing an influx of new estates and families.

These NCs are malls and mixed spaces operated by the Housing Board, and the first of these malls, Oasis Terraces in Punggol, was unveiled in 2019.

(From left) Four-year-olds Goh Yun Jie, Keegan Tang and Rae Lan, who are enrolled in an enrichment class at Tree Art, showing off their work to parents. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

They also represent the evolving nature of Singapore’s mall culture. These new malls are designed with large open-air areas, natural ventilation, sprawling green spaces with rooftop gardens, and sections or floors earmarked for enrichment and child-focused activities.

Although enrichment centres are nothing new in Singapore, what stands out about these zones is the intentionality and density behind their design, and the niche nature of their offerings. The enrichment industry was worth over $1.4 billion, according to the latest Household Expenditure Survey for the 2017/ 2018 period.

Oasis Terraces, for example, has no fewer than 11 enrichment or student care centres on its fifth floor, which is set aside for these businesses. A few other child-focused businesses, such as sports enrichment centre My Gym and Chinese enrichment centre Hua Cheng Education Centre, fill out the rest of the mall.

In contrast, other malls, even within the same neighbourhoods, have a lower density of child-oriented services. The Sengkang Grand Mall, for example, has five enrichment and education centres.

According to HDB, the percentage of floor space occupied by childcare, education and enrichment centres at north-eastern NCs – Oasis Terraces in Punggol, Anchorvale Village in Sengkang and Buangkok Square in Buangkok – is between 14 and 19 per cent.

Placing so many similar businesses next to one another may seem counter-intuitive. However, business owners and residents tell ST that these designs make sense, as malls move away from moving products to serving lifestyle needs.

Changing face of the north-east

Yenji Clay Craft owner Tok Hoi Chin and her students doing clay crafts on the fifth floor of Oasis Terraces, which is dedicated to enrichment centres. ST PHOTO: HESTER TAN

For residents of Punggol and Sengkang, the fast-developing urban landscape of north-east Singapore has brought a surge of malls, hawker centres and – most importantly for parents – enrichment and childcare centres.

Long-time Punggol resident Mrs Sia, who declines to give her first name, has witnessed these changes first-hand since moving to the area in 2003.

“When I first moved in, the area was empty,” she recalls, after dropping off her daughter at Yenji Clay Art, an enrichment centre at Oasis Terraces.

“I had problems and challenges with finding childcare and enrichment classes. So I had to go out of my way. Now, I think things are getting better. You have Northshore Plaza, you have Oasis Terraces.”

The design of these malls is a boon for a busy working mum, she adds. Her daughter used to go to one of the malls’ childcare centres and now takes an art class in the same building.

Mrs Sia says her daughter, who is in secondary school and has been taking the clay classes for four years now, has a passion for art.

At the Yenji Clay Art enrichment centre, she is surrounded by walls lined with kids’ clay creations of characters from My Little Pony, the video game Among Us, Disney films, and a sizeable and impressively moulded sculpture of Godzilla, alongside the odd clay bee or hamburger sculpture.

Ms Tok Hoi Chin, the centre’s owner and operator, believes the mall’s design makes sense for businesses because of cross-pollination. “Kids come here for tuition, see our classes and bring their parents along for a trial,” she says. Her store was among the tenants when the mall first opened in 2019.

“It’s convenient. This way, the parents can leave their kids here and there for long hours,” she adds, referring to how kids in Oasis Terraces often drift between classes in the same building.

Ms Tok and other business owners in the new NCs say that compared with other malls operated by large commercial developers, rents are lower and the landlord HDB puts fewer demands on their businesses. For that reason, she has renewed her lease for another three years.

Ballet instructor Melynda Teng teaching students at Dancepointe Academy in Oasis Terraces. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

Mr Lance Tang, co-owner of enrichment chain Dancepointe Academy, says different education businesses have different needs.

Some, such as tuition businesses, have higher profit margins and are less sensitive to shifting consumer demand, so they have a greater budget for rent.

“Meanwhile, most of the performing arts – especially dance schools in Singapore – are either National Arts Council-funded or a single studio tucked in a very inconvenient location,” he says.

Businesses like his also require more personalised support from landlords. Dance studios, for example, need larger rooms and have specific requirements, like a space unobstructed by pillars.

As such, malls operated by commercial developers tend to be packed with tuition or more academically oriented centres, alongside the usual mall staples like salons and restaurants.

In contrast, the NC malls are operated and curated by HDB.

A HDB spokesperson says: “A key aspect in the planning of new generation NCs is the curation of tenant mix by HDB. This is done by taking into account the needs of residents.”

For younger towns such as Sengkang and Punggol, the NCs have been planned with greater emphasis on family-friendly offerings such as education and enrichment centres, so as to provide young families with convenient access to these resources and services, says the spokesperson.

Mr Tang’s Dancepointe Academy was also among the inaugural tenants at Oasis Terraces in Punggol. He says this curation has given rise to a mix of businesses which complement, rather than compete with, one another.

This is in no small part due to Punggol residents themselves. In the lead-up to the mall’s opening, HDB conducted a series of focus group discussions with residents. Business owners in the mall say that residents were outspoken about their desire for a mix of enrichment businesses, specifically centres for the performing and visual arts.

“When this building was being filled, Punggol residents contributed fiercely on what they needed through the consultation process,” says Mr Tang.

This meant that HDB specifically sought a performing arts centre to become part of the originally 106-shop Oasis Terraces – a space which Dancepointe eventually filled.

“I see that our businesses here are quite complementary. It has become an education cluster that is a one-stop solution for everyone,” adds Mr Tang.

Building an enrichment nation

The fifth floor of Oasis Terraces is dedicated to enrichment and childcare centres. ST PHOTO: HESTER TAN

With floors dedicated to schooling, and students drifting between centres for their classes and daycare, the malls of the north-east have in many ways become an extension of school.

Dr Liew Kai Khiun, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, notes that enrichment centres carving out ever-larger chunks of malls is not a new trend, considering the lucrative nature of the private education sector.

“I have been told that the enrichment centres of older malls like Beauty World have also served several generations of students,” he says.

Dr Liew, who edited an academic volume on Singapore’s mall history and culture, notes that these enrichment centres can also have positive knock-on effects for neighbouring businesses, due to footfall from parents and students.

In his view, the “enrichment-ification” of malls is less a case of malls carving out spaces for enrichment centres, and more that these centres are increasingly defining what a mall is in Singapore.

The third floor of the Buangkok Square mall is set aside for enrichment centres and a roof garden. ST PHOTO: TEO KAI XIANG

Market pressures are increasing on malls to change and stay relevant to consumers, says Dr Lynda Wee, an adjunct associate professor at NTU’s Nanyang Business School.

She adds that the Covid-19 pandemic and technological developments caused a broader social shift away from physical retail spaces towards online retail.

As such, malls have to shift away from being a place for product-heavy storefronts and towards a new position as hubs for the lifestyle needs of their surrounding neighbourhoods.

In the case of the north-east, the surrounding neighbourhoods comprise many young families with schoolgoing kids, so a higher density of enrichment businesses makes sense.

Neighbourhoods with more senior citizens have more health and wellness options in place.

Dr Wee says: “Malls being lifestyle and community hubs is the way forward. By being able to build a community in their location and serving its lifestyle needs, they become relevant and ‘sticky’ due to the high engagement and repeat patronage.”

For business owners, the decision to set up shop in north-east Singapore was strategic.

According to Ms Ruby Teo, chief executive of enrichment chain Stalford Education Group, the influx of new estates and younger families to the north-east was a significant factor in her company’s decision to expand in this region. She adds that the dedicated enrichment zones provide an ideal environment for new branches.

Though a heavy concentration of enrichment centres is not unique to Singapore’s north-east, Ms Teo notes that what makes these stand out is the focus on younger age groups, from the pre-school level to those under the age of 12.

Parents crowd outside the Playfacto childcare and enrichment centre at Northshore Plaza. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

Ms Annabel Chow, a lead trainer at childcare and enrichment centre chain Playfacto’s Northshore branch, says that high demand has led to a wait list of over 50 students at her branch, which has a capacity of 80 students.

The high demand has led to Playfacto opening a new mega-centre in June, just five minutes away from Northshore Plaza, at Punggol Marina Country Club – which can accommodate up to 200 students.

Though good for business, the density of enrichment centres can be a cause for concern, says Dr Liew. For parents, this landscape could generate anxiety, especially when bombarded with countless messages from enrichment centres.

“Although they provide educational services, the density – especially in the neighbourhood malls – may come across as overwhelming, presenting the impression of education as a commercially oriented undertaking, rather than a public function of schools,” he adds.

Seeking an earlier head start

General manager Porshin Ng, 35, with his five-year-old daughter Pristine, who is enrolled in a creative math enrichment class at Playfacto. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

Playfacto’s enrichment trainer Ms Chow, who is also a Punggol resident, says she sees a distinct community spirit in the area, particularly among parents.

“It’s a very nice community with many young families, so everyone’s on the same page and same life stage,” she says.

According to education operators who spoke to ST, the typical profile of a Punggol and Sengkang parent is a dual-income parent who is working in a time-poor white-collar profession, is tech-savvy and is burdened with much anxiety over his or her child’s educational prospects.

Or, in Ms Chow’s words, they can be “kan cheong spiders”. Kan cheong means nervous in Cantonese.

Still, this makes for a discerning crowd, for whom word of mouth travels over large WhatsApp group chats, where parents and business owners share recommendations and information about trial classes.

This also means an environment – both urban and digital – which suggests an ever-earlier head start in a child’s schooling is ideal.

Punggol resident Rui Ren Yan, 32, says she feels the pressure to send her kids to enrichment classes. “I have signed up for a lot of trials for swimming and dancing, but she’s not enjoying those.”

Still, the accountant and mother of two is happy that her four-year-old daughter loves her art classes at Tree Art in Northshore Plaza.

“She is excited to go every Saturday. When she can go drawing she’s very happy, and it’s better than staying at home and watching the iPad,” Ms Rui says.

Mr Leo Kee, centre manager at Tree Art’s branch in Northshore, emphasises that a child’s interest remains the most important factor, especially for younger age groups.

However, he acknowledges that many parents view art programmes as a means of improving their child’s odds at securing a place in top secondary schools through the Direct School Admission (DSA) process.

The process allows primary school pupils to apply for secondary schools based on their talents and achievements, rather than solely on their academic results.

There were a record 38,000 DSA applications from 14,500 students in 2023, with about 4,400 receiving places.

With the DSA being an additional avenue to enter top schools, it is natural that many parents want to develop their kids’ interests in non-academic areas too, Mr Kee adds.

The pressure does not only come from the top, according to Mr Timothy Chia, the co-owner of the tuition centre chain Illum.e.

His chain opened its fifth branch in Hougang in May to cater to families in the north-east, and now has a wait list of more than 80 students.

He says that as kids age up, businesses such as his market to the child instead of the parent. That is because children become more cognisant of where their strengths and weaknesses lie, where they would like additional support, and whether a teacher is providing them with support that is tailored to their needs.

This logic applies to other enrichment businesses as well.

As kids age up, dance studios adapt by offering classes with contemporary music by artistes such as American superstar Taylor Swift and K-pop groups. Art classes start taking their references from popular cartoons and video games as kids begin to assert their tastes.

Punggol resident Lionel Ho says he did not initially intend to send his eight-year-old daughter, Nicole Ho, to Playfacto’s robotics and coding enrichment class, which the centre markets as a pre-DSA academy.

He admits that he was not certain at first if this was starting her too young.

Trainer Rajitha Malarvaan with eight-year-old Nicole Ho, who is enrolled in a robotics and coding enrichment class at Playfacto at Northshore Plaza. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

With his background in engineering, he values the ability to think in a systematic way, which he believes an enrichment course on coding and robotics will help in.

Still, he says there is no pressure for Nicole to excel in the subject or to become a programmer.

He is glad that she now understands if-else statements – a programming concept – and can apply them to real-world objects such as traffic lights.

“I only got to know if-else statements in secondary school, so when the centre started talking about coding, I thought maybe she was too young for this,” he says. “When I asked her to explain the concept, I could see that she saw the logic behind it.

About his hands-on parenting, he adds: “We come here because I really do appreciate it when my daughter can relate to me what she learns. For me and my wife, we want to know if she has somehow benefitted from the lesson.”

For her part, Nicole says she enjoys her classes and thinks robots are cool. She and her cousin, also a classmate, say they do not feel any pressure to attend.

Mr Ho says he tells his daughter that his parents were focused on bread-and-butter issues when he was young, and could not send him to such classes.

“Now that you have this opportunity that we can afford, you should try,” he recalls explaining to his daughter. “If you can start early, why not?”