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Crestar Education Group is a provider of childcare services for infants and children, and education and enrichment programmes for a range of age groups mainly in China and Southeast Asian region. The Group Managing Director is Ms Kwan Peck Leng. And the Chief Operating Officer is Mr Robert Leong.

The Crestar Education Group Story
Crestar Education Group originated as a part of Yamaha Music Asia in 1977, which has a network of music schools and product showrooms in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. Its two most established brands are Kinderland and ELFA that target the early childhood demographic; the former focusing on a “music-infused integrated curriculum” and the latter placing more emphasis on bilingual programmes and Chinese language. Enrichment classes such as ballet, speech and drama, abacus & mental arithmetic, art and music are provided at Crestar School of Dance, and Crestar Learning Centres. Chinese tuition and language courses for kindergarten to secondary 4 level are provided by Molin Tutorial Centre, a recent member of Crestar Education Group.

Crestar Education Group (formerly known as Crestar Holdings) was incorporated in 1999. In late 2001, there was a management buy-out of non-Yamaha entities, namely Kinderland and Crestar to form the Crestar Education Group, with Ms Kwan Peck Leng who started the Kinderland business lead shareholder.

Kinderland
In 1978, Ms Kwan Peck Leng, then the director of Yamaha Music School spearheaded the start of a new business for the group – that of preschool education under the name of Yamaha Kindergarten. Yamaha Kindergarten was renamed as Kinderland Kindergarten in 1986. Following that, Kinderland Educare Services Private Limited was formed to manage other aspects of preschool education such as teachers training and childcare services.

In 1986, Kinderland opened its first overseas branch in Ipoh, Malaysia, and expanded into Indonesia and China nearly a decade later.

Company Profile
Crestar Education Group has over 120 centres operating in Bangladesh, China and Southeast Asian region, serving over 20,000 students annually.

Mission and Vision
Crestar Education Group’s mission is to “provide quality educational programs and services.” Their vision is to be a “regional provider in lifelong education.”

Curriculum and Talent Development
Crestar Education Group sets itself apart from its competitors through its focus on curriculum and talent development. Crestar’s Chief Operating Officer Mr Robert Leong, said those two areas were the most difficult aspects of the business, as they require extensive research and development, and applied research is needed to craft Crestar’s curriculum. Crestar also has a team that monitors global educational developments, conducts research, and tests new syllabi, and a panel focused on international best practices.

Kinderland spends between 3 to 5 percent of its S$30 million annual revenue on curriculum development for its Kinderland brand, Mr Robert Leong also said that research indicated that music-infused language literacy programme helps to develop students’ brain development and memory retention too.

In 1985, Kinderland set up its own teachers training department with a proprietary in-house curriculum. Three years later, Crestar formally established Kinderland Learning Centre (KLC) School of Education to train and certify more preschool teachers in support of the government’s move to have up to 2,000 childcare teachers trained as part its plan to encourage the setting up of more childcare centres in Singapore.

KLC’s teacher training programme was the first by a private school to be accredited by the government for the training of early childhood teachers in Singapore. KLC School of Education conducts training for pre-school and childcare teachers, ranging from certification to degree programmes. The training centre also partners with the Beijing Normal University and the University of Warwick for its training programmes. The centre was the first to offer a preschool education degree for Chinese Language Teachers, and the syllabi includes pedagogy and research in early childhood studies, leadership and management, and Chinese Literature.

Having grown into a full-fledge adult education subsidiary with four campuses in Singapore, KLC School of Education was renamed KLC International Institute (KLCII) in 2014. This is to reflect its new thrust to provide continuing education with pathways to higher career achievement.

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teacher training continues to be KLCII’s mainstay, as it offers various courses from certificate to honours degree level for English and Chinese programs. KLCII works closely with the Singapore Work Development Agency (WDA) and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) to provide subsidised quality training for the ECCE sector under the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) system for ECCE, from 2012.

In 2007, KLCII was appointed by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) to conduct the ES WSQ Chinese Workplace Literacy (CWPL) - Business Chinese programme to equip adult learners with the necessary level of proficiency in Mandarin for use in work and social settings. All participants are required to take a business Chinese proficiency test to obtain either a WSQ Statement of Attainment or an internationally-recognised Business Chinese Test certificate from the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), Beijing, co- badged with WSQ.

Crestar’s other emerging preschool brands
In 2010, the NurtureStars early childhood brand was started. NurtureStars is a collaboration between Kinderland and Singapore Armed Forces Reservist Association (SAFRA), providing quality childcare services at various SAFRA club houses. Featuring a unique fitness-oriented curriculum, NurtureStars leverages on the strength of both organisations to meet the needs of the families of more than 350,000 SAFRA members.

In 2014, Kinderland led a consortium to start a new brand called Skool4kidz that was appointed by the government as an anchor operator for accessible, affordable and quality childcare services in the heartlands. This was to support the government’s policy to ensure that every child has access to childcare services as it had planned to open up to 200 new centres in public housing estates all over the country within five years.

International Chinese Proficiency Tests
Crestar Education Group was in 2003 appointed by the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban 汉办) Beijing, China, to administer and conduct the International Chinese Proficiency Test (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi or HSK 汉语水平考试) in Singapore. HSK Centre (Crestar) was established in May that year to promote Chinese language as an international language through the HSK and the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) and provide training for those participating in the test. Since then, more than 100,000 school children and adults have sat for the tests.

Overseas Presence
According to The Straits Times, “a growing demand for pre-school services in the region” helped Crestar to expand rapidly in 2003. In 2006, the Straits Times reported that Crestar Education Group was “Singapore’s largest homegrown education provider for pre-school(s), as well as a regional player”.

Franchising
The company’s expansion is also complemented by franchising. The Crestar Education Group opted to move into franchising because it wished to share its  findings in research and development with others; and franchising would allow them to connect with overseas partners who “know their centres, market demand and culture”. Kinderland started franchising its business in 1993 by developing a franchise package with the assistance of the then Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (now known as Spring Singapore) for the domestic sector and with the then Singapore Trade Development Board (now known as International Enterprise Singapore) for the overseas market. Crestar Learning Centre also followed suit and franchised its programmes in 1997. They began sourcing for potential franchisees that had an interest in education, were business savvy and had stable financial resources. The franchise centres were also monitored to ensure quality, via visits and observations, feedback from parents, as well as regular teacher training.

Kinderland was in the pioneer batch that was awarded the Singapore Franchise Mark in 2000, which acknowledged franchises that met standards for “sound business practices and strong management capabilities”. The mark identifies franchisors that comply with ethical practices, hence providing “greater transparency” while also helping the franchisors to widen their franchise network.

Expansion in China
Heeding former Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s call to enter the Chinese market, Crestar opened its first Kinderland preschool in Suzhou, China in the mid-1990s. Crestar initially planned to target only expatriate children, but subsequently changed its target audience to include the locals in up-market residential areas.

In 2001, Crestar Education Group opened its first kindergarten under the ELFA brand (爱儿坊幼儿学苑) for local Chinese children in Shandong, which is tailored to meet the needs of the local schooling system. The ELFA brand gained traction due to its focus on bilingualism and advanced Chinese language skills that help to prepare Chinese children for formal schooling. In spite of challenges faced with regulatory systems, customer needs and expectations and culture, Crestar responded quickly to market requirements.

According to the Business Times report on 21 July 2014, Crestar Education Group is currently “the largest Singapore preschool operator in China” after signing a 15-year agreement to develop a new six million yuan (S$1.2 million) ELFA pre-school in the Sichuan province. This will be the fourth pre-school in Sichuan and the thirty-seventh outlet announced in China. The new centre will be located in a residential development in the central business district, and will include “a computer lab, baking studio and performance auditorium”.

Notable Projects
In August 2003, KLC School of Education held the First Asia Chinese Early Childhood Education Conference in Singapore, the first of its kind in the region that discussed the relevance of early childhood best practices of the East.

This was followed by an International Chinese Early Childhood Education Conference in August 2005 that discussed and shared ideas on policies and trends in pre-school education programmes that used Chinese (Mandarin) as the medium of instruction. The two events were attended by academics and pre-school educators and leaders from South East Asia, China and Taiwan.

In November 2013, Confucius Classroom @ Crestar held the world’s ‘Inaugural Symposium on Chinese Language Teaching for International Schools’ in Singapore

to facilitate the exchange of experience and ideas in the teaching of Chinese language in international schools in the region. It featured an expert on the subject from France and teachers from eight international schools in Singapore sharing their curriculum efforts and teaching methods in primary and secondary schools.

In the next year, an ‘International School Chinese Methodology Workshop 2014’ was conducted to share latest research findings on ‘Immersive Teaching and Culture’ and ‘The establishment of an interactive classroom’ by two academics from China.

Both were attended by Chinese teachers and professors from China, Malaysia and Thailand. They were covered by Singapore’s largest Chinese newspaper ‘Lianhe Zaobao’ and China’s Xinhua News Website.

The Crestar Education Group also takes pride in its focus on health, nutrition and fitness, and “works with the Health Promotion Board to calibrate its menus according to nutritional values”. It  has a KinderFit Programme that aims to develop children’s motor skills and they are “tracking the physical growth and health” as well as the cardio wellness of students under the programme.

Corporate Social Responsibility
In May 2008, Crestar helped to raise funds for those affected in the Sichuan earthquake. One of their pre-schools was also used as a temporary shelter for the elderly in the aftermath of the earthquake. Teachers also provided activity sheets to youngsters kept indoors during that period to help them continue their learning.

Besides occasionally raising funds for disaster relief, Crestar also has an on-going CSR programme focused on saving the earth for its Kinderland preschools. A special curriculum has been introduced to help children learn about the world they live in and environmentally-friendly practices, including hands-on recycling activities. Children from both the Kinderland and ELFA preschool centres have been participating in the National Environment Agency’s “Clean & Green Week” programmes and winning awards in the various competitions every year since 2010.

In 2009, Crestar’s ELFA preschool brand in China (爱儿坊幼儿学苑) teamed up with the LEGO Foundation of Denmark to implement “Care for Education” - a community service education programme for underprivileged children in China. By the end of 2014, the programme had touched the lives of over 250,000 migrant and underprivileged children in 757 preschools in 10 cities including the remote regions of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang.

Awards
The Crestar Education Group has achieved various awards over the years including: