33rd Annual General Meeting: CDAC Expands its Support for Beneficiaries by Spending Over $37 million to help 15,700 households
· Bursary Income Criteria Revision Sees a 12% Increase in Successful Applicants
· CDAC Introduces Four-Pillar Framework to Strengthen Community Support
· Academic and Non-academic Places to Triple and Double by 2030
In 2024, the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) continued to provide both broad-based and deepened support to help families in need. This year, it spent over $37 million to help 15,700 households. This was up from $34 million and 15,300 households in 2023. A large portion of the budget was allocated towards supporting the education of the young, to ensure they had access to holistic support beyond academic assistance. The income criteria was also raised in 2024 to help families. This saw a 12% increase in successful applicants compared to 2023.
2024 saw the following results:
· 15,000 tuition and enrichment places,
· 12,000 student bursaries,
· 8,000 places for Family Support Programmes, and
To strengthen community support, CDAC categorised its wide range of programmes and schemes under four main pillars:
· Learn @ CDAC,
· Assistance @ CDAC,
· Partner @ CDAC, and
· Volunteer @ CDAC.
The Four Pillars of CDAC
1. Learn @ CDAC: Empowering Students Through Mentoring and Role-Modelling
In 2024, 322 students were supported through mentoring programmes such as GEM (Go the Extra Mile) Mentoring, Supervised Homework Group, and Project YOUth Can Shine. CDAC also expanded its Student Learning Support Team, which provided targeted intervention to 715 students, addressing learning, social-emotional, and behavioural needs in close collaboration with families and schools.
2. Assistance @ CDAC: Supporting and Strengthening Families
Through the Ready for School initiative, 8,041 families received school-ready vouchers to ease the cost of preparing for the new school year. A total of 12,543 bursaries were disbursed—a 12% increase made possible by revising income eligibility criteria to benefit more families. In addition, 477 families received targeted support through Family Resource Programmes, including workshops and support groups.
3. Partner @ CDAC: Broaden Support Through Collaboration
Participation in SPOT: Beyond, an interest-based programme, more than doubled to 80 students in 2024, with new activities hosted in a fully equipped tinkering space at CDAC@ Bukit Panjang. Initiatives such as Ready for School and the Play-Based Learning Programme also received strong support from partners.
4. Volunteer @ CDAC: The Heart of CDAC’s Work
In 2024, our volunteers contributed 25,350 hours of service across regular and ad-hoc programmes. Events like the “Clean Districts, Amazing Communities” involved 278 students and 66 volunteers in a mass community litter-picking activity, reinforcing values of giving back. On 5 July 2025, CDAC will hold its inaugural Volunteers and Partners Appreciation Day to recognise and celebrate volunteers’ and partners’ contributions.
In the next five years (from 2026 to 2030), CDAC will increase access to our academic, enrichment, and learning support programmes. By 2030, CDAC aims to more than double the number of places for academic, enrichment and learning support programmes, from over 15,000 today to over 30,000. CDAC will also broaden the types of programmes and create more platforms to spot children’s talents and develop them with our community partners and volunteers. Together, these changes provide a holistic development for our low-income children beyond just academic preparations.