They Might Be Curly Giants!

It is the usual grouse of Singaporeans to complain about the rising cost of living in this country. It’s the same anywhere else in this world, I guess. The problem is even more acute when you’re in a tight financial situation or saddled with debts and costs keep rising and rising. We’re blessed with a dual-income household, affording us small luxuries every now and then, but we do feel the pinch when vital or necessary things get too expensive.

One of which is Ajab’s school fees. Sending a child to a special school isn’t cheap, even with the aid of subsidies and other financial assistance, so we were a little dismayed when told that, as a result of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) cutting back on it’s subsidy by introducing ‘means testing’, ie. those who can afford it will have to pay more because of a lower proportion of subsidy available to them, Ajab’s school fees will go up to nearly $500 a month. That was the initial estimates without financial assistance.

We got the news that we were hoping to get the other day when we were told that we qualified for quite a substantial bit of subsidy from MCYS that will nearly halve Ajab’s fees to just under $300. Still quite a bit to fork out, but when we see it’s for Ajab’s benefit and we’re seeing improvements in his behaviour, it’s a small price to pay.

Those expensive fees aren’t for nothing of course. The fees are high at Ajab’s school because not only is he getting a special education, the facilities at his school are unlike most ‘normal’ schools. Besides the usual classroom materials, there are facilities like the hydrotherapy pool (heated), a toy library where kids can borrow toys and puzzles to aid their development, and there’s also a pretty good resource centre for staff, parents and the general public. I haven’t been there myself but Trin said there are lots of useful materials and books on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and dealing with children with special needs. There’s even an online catalog where borrowers can search for books and renew their rentals and so on.