Forum Letter Replies
Better Quality Pre-school Teachers to Meet Challenges in Changing Education Environment
Ms Chen shared about her experience in upgrading herself as a pre-school teacher in her letter “Teacher without certificate” on 2 June. This is a spirit to be encouraged and we applaud Ms Chen’s efforts and enthusiasm.
Pre-school educators play an important role in laying the early years’ foundation for the holistic development of young children. Pre-school teachers have to design curriculum and activities that are appropriate for young children, and also nurture children into active learners while developing their emotional and social competencies. To do these well, pre-school educators will need to acquire the necessary educational and professional knowledge and skills.
To ensure that our children can benefit from a high quality of pre-school education, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) have raised the academic and professional qualification requirements for pre-school educators progressively over the years. The current minimum qualifications of pre-school teachers are 3 GCE ‘O’ level credits including English Language (or a band score of 5.5 in the International English Language Testing System). Mother tongue language teachers need to have the equivalent scores in the relevant mother tongue language, instead of English.
Ms Chen, with 5 ‘N’ level credits, has expressed interest in continuing with her career as a pre-school teacher. She may wish to attend preparatory classes organised by the Institute for Technical Education (ITE) to help in preparing for the O-level examinations. O-level credits combined from more than one O-level examination may be counted in the registration as a pre-school teacher.
Ms Chen may also wish to consider alternative career paths and training opportunities in pre-school education such as seeking employment as an assistant teacher in nursery or pre-nursery classes in a pre-school, or in enrichment centres offering pre-school programmes, or in playgroups. She may also wish to pursue the Fundamentals Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education and the Certificate in Infant / Toddler Care & Development so that she can qualify to work as a Child Care Assistant or as staff in an infant care centre.
We appreciate Ms Chen’s efforts to upgrade her skills and encourage her to consider the various training opportunities and career pathways that are available.
Director, Education Programmes Division
Ministry of Education
Director, Family Services Division
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
“Teacher without certificate (Teacher Chen, SM, 2/6, p19)”
I have already been in the pre-school childhood education profession for 20 years. Initially, I joined the profession as I enjoyed playing and having fun with children. Even though I only had the education level of 5 ‘N’ levels passes back then, the education centre still employed me.
Back then, MOE’s expectations of us were not as high. My employer sent me on the “Fundamentals Certificate In Early Childhood Care & Education” course in 1993 but I did not take up the course as I had no ‘O’ Level qualifications.
I realised that today’s examination papers are vastly different from those in the past when I re-entered the examination centre in 2004. I merely obtained one ‘O’ level pass in CL that year.
I am Chinese-educated, yet I had to answer the questions in English for all examination papers except for the CL paper.
I could not fulfil my wish of passing the ‘O’ Level examinations in both 2005 and 2006 and still did not meet the requirements for taking up the Certificate in Pre-school teaching (CPT) course.
At that time, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) announced that it was planning to roll out a special course for pre-school teachers who were without 3 O-level passes but were experienced in teaching. I waited for news regarding the plan for half a year. I was only told upon calling the relevant authorities that the plan had been aborted.
I had completed the “Certificate In Infant & Toddler Care & Development” course in August 2007 and registered for the examination again this year but I have no confidence of succeeding.
I have registered for the ‘O’ Level examination again this year but I have no confidence of obtaining 3 O-level passes. What does it matter even if I am successful in obtaining the passes since MOE and MCYS is set to raise the standards again to 5 O-level passes? I wonder how many more experienced teachers would be affected by this decision.
Our experiences are not accumulated over night. However, we would be downgraded to be teaching assistants if we do not have 5 O-level passes. Our salaries would definitely be reduced. The current salary that workers in this profession are drawing is already meagre; most of us are reaching our fifties and have also left school for 20 to 30 years. Poring over our textbooks again in preparation for O-level exams for the sake of this profession which we have always been passionate about is easier said than done. Besides, all the textbooks are written in the English Language. We do not know what course to follow or take next. Could the relevant authorities show kindness to teachers like us, who have put in many years of hard work but have been treated unfairly?
Hasn’t the government always been encouraging elder workers like us to upgrade ourselves? In this case, it is not that we do not want to upgrade ourselves but that we do not have the opportunity to do so.