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Pre-school Education

MOE-AECES Awards for Kindergartens 2012

To recognise the good work done by kindergartens and their teachers, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Association for Early Childhood Educators (Singapore) will be giving away the MOE-AECES Awards for Kindergarten Excellence 2012.

Find out more about the MOE-AECES awards.

MOE Scholarship/Teaching Award/Bursary

In MOE’s continued efforts to provide more opportunities for the upgrading of educational qualifications of pre-service and in-service Early Childhood educators from not-for-profit kindergartens, we are pleased to announce the launch of the awards for the following programmes:

  • the MOE Scholarship for the Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education (B Sc ECE) tenable at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) in collaboration with the Wheelock College.
  • the MOE Teaching Award for the Advanced Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education — Leadership (ADECCE-L)(part-time) tenable at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP).

Eligible kindergartens may apply here.

Singapore Pre-School Accreditation Framework

The Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework (SPARK) is a quality assurance framework introduced by the Ministry of Education to raise the quality of pre-schools in Singapore. All kindergartens and child care centres may apply for SPARK assessment and certification.

Good Practice Award for Kindergartens 2012

The Good Practice Award for Kindergartens serves to support kindergartens in recognising teachers and principals who have made significant contributions to their centres.

Introduction

Kindergartens are ‘schools’ that provide a structured 3-year pre-school education programme for children aged 4 to 61. The 3-year programme consists of Nursery, Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2. Kindergartens function daily, five days a week, with schooling hours ranging from 3 hours to 4 hours each day. Most kindergartens function at least two sessions a day.

Programmes

The daily programme of each level includes learning activities that develop language and literacy skills, basic number concepts, social skills, creative and problem solving skills, appreciation of music and movement and outdoor play. Children will learn in two languages, English as the first language and Chinese, Malay or Tamil as a Mother Tongue language.

School Term

Kindergartens, except for foreign system kindergartens, follow the school year observed by schools in the formal education system. The school year consists of four 10-week terms beginning on 2 January each year. There is a one-week vacation after the first and third term, a 4-week vacation mid-year and 6 weeks at year end.

Registration

Kindergartens conduct their own pupil enrolment/ registration exercises as early as March each year for admission to programmes in the following year. Parents will need to contact the respective registered kindergartens directly for further information on admission.

Type of Pre-school Centres

Kindergartens in Singapore are run by the private sector, including community foundations, religious bodies, social organisations and business organisations. Under the Education Act (1985 Edition), kindergartens are defined as private schools that have to be registered with the Ministry of Education (MOE). There are foreign system kindergartens and foreign system / international schools that offer kindergarten programmes for children of expatriate parents.

Child care centres also offer kindergarten programmes to children aged 3 to 6. Kindergartens are registered with the Ministry of Education (MOE) while child care centres are licensed by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS).

Quality Holistic Development for Pre-schoolers

The Singapore Pre-School Accreditation Framework (SPARK) is a quality Assurance Framework which aims to raise the quality of pre-schools in Singapore through the improvement of teaching, learning administration and management process. The SPARK logo is a symbol of quality education programmes in pre-schools. You can look out for pre-schools that are SPARK certified by referring to the MOE or MCYS websites. You can also look out for the SPARK logo on the pre-schools’ publicity materials.

  1. The year the child turns 4 years old to the year the child turns 6 years old except those born on 1 Jan. ↵

Desired Outcomes of Pre-school Education

At the end of pre-school education, children will:

Contact

For enquiries or feedback, please email us at moe_peb@moe.gov.sg.