Education Ministry resists calls to nationalise preschool education

By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia 11 January 2010 2220 hrs

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education said it has no plans to nationalise preschool education. Responding to MP Josephine Teo in Parliament on Monday, Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said such a move could lead to conformity and thus be counter-productive to the child's development.

During a child's preschool years, teachers and parents agree that building social skills and confidence should get priority. But opinions differ on how this should be done.

Some parents said preschools should be brought into the public education system. Genevieve Loke, a parent said: "I think so. So that parents are guaranteed of the minimum standards offered by kindergartens and childcare." But opponents said this may not work in the best interests of the child, especially if this means having standardised assessments.

Patricia Koh, founder-director, Pat’s Schoolhouse, said: "If you start very early to teach children what the answers are in order for them to pass the exams or to be assessed, that's going to be very sad."

Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said: "A nationalised pre-school sector would tend towards conformity which is not ideal. It would deprive parents the ability to choose from a variety of early childhood care and education models and operators that best fit the needs of their child."

The debate over nationalising the preschool sector is a long-standing one. Supporters feel that doing so will lower fees for parents and ensure some form of continuity when the child enters Primary One.

However, the Education Ministry said that such a move may lead to an over-emphasis on academic results and could in the long-run, dampen the child's interest in learning. So the ministry's position is to set broad guidelines and support the diverse options currently available. Dr Ng said: "Once you nationalise it, there is always a tendency to compare one kindergarten with the other, go to the extreme of asking us to rank kindergartens and how they perform and to then compare what teachers are, and that's that tendency."

“Our focus is one, to raise the teacher quality and to set general guidelines, broad parameters on the desired outcomes of education to avoid this issue of trying to make children ready."

Preschool fees can range from S$100 to S$1,500 a month. And asked by Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Josephine Teo on whether fees could be made as affordable as primary school fees, Dr Ng said his ministry provides grants to low- and middle-income families to help them pay for preschool education. Financial assistance is also given out by MCYS to help families with their children's childcare fees. - CNA/vm

See previous postings on same topic:

http://childrenareourfutureteachthemwell.blogspot.com/2009/10/legislate-preschoolsare-you-kidding.html

http://childrenareourfutureteachthemwell.blogspot.com/2009/10/preschool-education-should-be-moes-baby.html

ChildAid 2009 Rocks!

With a cast of over 200 talented kids starting at 8 years of age, this ChildAid 2009 brought the house down with their performances!

Angelic voices, worldclass piano recitals, excellent renditions of Fame,

the list continues..

But when the 7 drummers started "chatting" amongst themselves, everyone was fingers-snapping and feet-stomping, bringing the new Resorts World Festive Theatre roof down..they were pure magic!

With such talents amongst our young, you get that warm sensation of "Yeah, our Singapore youth is in fine shape!" And all this, to support a worthy charitable cause, to boot. Outstanding.

I would gladly recommend all early childhood professionals to witness these mightily talented kids in our midst. You will not be disappointed, charitable cause aside.