By Maria Almenoar

HER daughter's love for pre-school while living in Britain sparked Mrs Ng Gim Choo's interest in education and teaching.

'She would wear her school uniform on weekends and ask if we could go to school,' she recalled.

After just one trip to her then four-year-old's school in Kensington, London, Mrs Ng believed she could help reshape pre-school learning in Singapore.

In 1995, she started EtonHouse School with one centre in Broadrick Road and only 30 pupils.

Now the chain has grown to 10 local centres, seven in China and one in Indonesia. Her latest venture is a centre in Pune, India. The chain has more than 3,000 pupils and 328 staff.

Like EtonHouse, more local childcare centres are taking the Singapore brand overseas and showcasing the local education models.

Kinderland, for example, was the first pre-school in Singapore to venture overseas in the 1980s. Now, it has more than 20 centres in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Said its spokesman: 'We are now concentrating our efforts in China. At the same time, we are also looking for opportunities in countries like Vietnam and India.'

Another local brand, Cherie Hearts, has 50 centres here and is in the process of setting up others in China, South Korea, and Hong Kong. It now has centres in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the next six months, it plans to expand to at least another 100 centres worldwide and is working with potential partners in Australia, India, Dubai and Thailand.

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said it has seen an increase in the number of pre-schools set up overseas by Singapore education providers but could not give exact numbers.

Said deputy director of IE Singapore's business services Tan Soon Kim:'The exposure to the Singapore brand of education at an early age gives parents in overseas markets the confidence to send their children to Singapore to further their studies.'

He added Singapore companies offer quality content and professionalism. Credibility also allows them to compete at more than just price.

Mrs Ng agrees that Singapore pre-schools have much to offer overseas. In fact, her work was most recently recognised in London where she was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in February.

She knows she has come a long way since the early days of EtonHouse: 'When I lost $1 million in my first year, it was very upsetting. I almost gave up.'

Parents then were not used to Eton's style of teaching and had doubts about a school with little homework and a lack of tests. It took some convincing and 'live examples' of well-adjusted pupils who went on to primary school before parents started seeing the benefits of her curriculum.

'We expanded through word of mouth. It was the good things people had to say about us that made us popular, not advertising,' she explained.

The education group took three years to turn profitable. Now, she runs not only pre-school courses but also diploma and degree courses for aspiring kindergarten teachers.

'At the end of the day, it shows when you put the children as your priority,' she said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.