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[Singapore] – Local business Maroon Connection has been working hard in helping schools around Singapore improve their productivity, operational process and overall hygiene levels whilst relieving preschool teachers and older staff such as cleaners from the time-consuming task of handwashing and drying large volume of toys and study materials on a regular basis.
With the already heavy administrative workload of preschool educators, the reduction of such labour-intensive work is a much-needed source of relief to schools and has in turn help educators better utilise their time on curriculum planning while also enabling them to support children who might require additional attention in learning and development.
Since 2015, household use ultraviolet (“UV”) sterilisers have been gaining much traction amongst young mothers in Singapore who are opting to have a small UV steriliser at home to help with the sterilisation of milk bottles, breast pump parts and small teething toys for their newborn.
Maroon Connection’s commercial use UV sterilisation equipment helps to effectively reduce Hand-Foot-Mouth diseases and also other bacteria such as E. Coli and Salmonella which typically cause food poisoning, through its state-of-the-art, chemical-free UV sterilisation technology.
Maroon Connection’s Director, Esther Chan, having lived abroad for many years, has seen firsthand how other countries have seamlessly incorporated UV sterilisation into their daily lives which has relieved its local manpower of much menial work while ensuring good hygiene. A close friend’s sister who has been working in the Early Childhood sector in Singapore for over 10 years has also shared her insights with Esther about the manual and administrative workload and long work hours that preschool educators and cleaners face, many of whom come into schools from time to time on Saturdays to sanitise the toys. All these spurred Esther, who enjoys problem-solving, to seek a better solution in reducing the workload and improving hygiene levels to streamline daily operations of preschools.
Director of Wharton Preschool, Mr. Michael, who has always place strong importance on his staff well-being and stringent hygiene practices, is looking to bring the equipment onboard his 2 preschools after his teachers have shared upon trying out the equipment that “it has been very helpful and lessens their burden in sanitising the toys.” Wharton Preschool which prides itself on its unique combination of Montessori and holistic play-based thematic learning curriculum, will be 1 of the pioneers in adopting such UV technology and is currently implementing the productivity project which is expected to be completed before the start of the new school year.
Tapping onto productivity solution grants such as Inclusive Growth Programme (“IGP”) and WorkPro Job Redesign offered by e2i Singapore, this has seen more schools showing keen interest in having the equipment onboard their schools. With the significant reduction of manual handwashing through the UV automation process, the equipment has helped schools improve their productivity and operational efficiency while enjoying overall time and costs savings in the process by reducing more than 50% of the time spent sanitising toys.
[Source: EduTech Asia 2019 - Improving productivity and hygiene in schools – 1 equipment at a time!]