No long wait as new bigger learning centre for students with dyslexia opens in Yishun
A bigger learning centre for students with dyslexia opened on Thursday in Yishun, with parents in the area now able to enrol their children almost immediately instead of a two- to four-month wait previously.
Some parents had also been directed to centres away from Yishun.
The new Dyslexia Association of Singapore's (DAS) Yishun Learning Centre, which cost $300,000 to set up, has twice the capacity of a previous centre to serve a growing number of children with dyslexia or other specific learning differences requiring specialist services.
There are currently 13 DAS Learning Centres around the island which provide a wide range of programmes for persons with dyslexia and specific learning differences. The total enrolment is currently at about 3,500 students, who are from five to 17 years old.
The new centre in Block 741 Yishun Avenue 5 will cater to about 300 students and is a replacement for the previous facility located in Yishun Central 1, which had opened in 2014 and could serve 155 students.
The new learning centre, a short walk from Yishun MRT station, has eight classrooms compared to the previous centre which had four classrooms. The venue also provides a comfortable and conducive environment for learning as it is equipped with wireless projectors and dimmable lights to cater to students with specific light brightness level needs.
DAS chief executive Lee Siang said the new centre will be beneficial for the families living in the Yishun area, adding that enrolment has gone up by 17 per cent since classes began in March.
He also said that with 72 per cent of the students from the former learning centre in Yishun benefiting from the DAS Bursary Fund set up for students from lower-income families, the new centre will ensure that more needy students will be able to get support on their learning journey.
"For Yishun, there seems to be a concentration of children from lower-income families coming to our centre. We wanted a location that would mean they would not have to travel so much, and this centre being so well located helps tremendously with that," said Mr Lee.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, an MP for Nee Soon GRC, on Thursday acknowledged organisations such as Micron Technology, which donated $53,000 to fund the DAS Science programme and to provide DAS centres with refurbished desktops and hardware to implement a virtual front counter.
In a speech at the opening, which he attended as the guest of honour, he also lauded the Singapore Island Country Club, which made a $99,300 gift to the DAS bursary fund.
"This is a timely donation due to the high proportion of students who require bursaries in Yishun," he said.
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