Forum Letter Replies
Multiple efforts to uplift the quality of pre-school teachers
In her letter (“It is time to upgrade the quality of pre-school teachers”) to Lianhe Zaobao’s forum on 15 April 2010, Shen Wen Feng hoped that the authorities would look into upgrading the quality of pre-school teachers. Both MOE and MCYS share her view that the quality of teachers is key to raising the quality of pre-school education. We are committed to uplift the quality of pre-school education in Singapore so as to provide a strong foundation for our children.
Both Ministries jointly steer the Pre-school Qualification and Accreditation Committee which oversees the standards and quality of pre-school teacher training for the kindergarten and child care sectors by accrediting certificate and diploma level courses. In January 2009, the standards required of pre-school training courses were enhanced to ensure that teacher preparation programmes are rigorous and keep up with new developments in the field of early childhood education.
The minimum professional qualification for pre-school teachers has also been raised since January 2009 from a certificate to a diploma in early childhood care and education - teaching. Existing teachers who wish to teach K1 and K2 have until December 2012 to obtain their diploma. The minimum academic requirement for new teachers was also raised to 5 ‘O’ level credit passes including English Language.
The government provides scholarships, teaching awards and bursaries every year to encourage teachers to upgrade to meet the requirements. The accelerated professional diploma programme, funded under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) was developed to cater to fresh and mid-career degree and polytechnic diploma holders who wish to join the sector.
Salaries for pre-school teachers have risen by about 18% since 2007. From 2010, we will enhance the grant to provide greater support for eligible kindergartens and child care centres to attract and reward better qualified principals and teachers. The grant will help these centres to employ better qualified staff, and encourage existing staff to pursue higher qualifications, while keeping fees affordable.
We thank the writer for the feedback.
Director, Education Programmes Division
Ministry of Education
Director, Child Care Division
Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports
“It is time to upgrade the quality of pre-school teachers” (Shen Wen Feng, ZB Forum, 15/4/10, p23)
Pre-school education plays a vital role in boosting the quality of the people of a nation. Hence the education of children in their formative years should be of great concern. Children at this age have a strong desire to learn as well as the capability to learn by imitation. At this stage, the knowledge they have attained, or even the emotive memories such as encouragements and setbacks they have experienced in the process of learning, may remain etched on their memories for life as well as have an impact on their character for life. Hence, there is a need to emphasise that children should learn the right things, especially the way they get along with people and the way they learn.
Many young couples are both working now and would leave their children at childcare centres if they have no parents at home to look after them. Even if there are elderly at home or maids to look after the children, parents will still send them to childcare centres to learn.
Many children spend most of their time at the childcare centres now. Hence, they are in close contact with teachers at their childcare centres and kindergartens, where they can pick up many habits and learn about words and behaviour through their teachers. Thus pre-school teachers have a profound impact on pre-schoolers.
Children are the future leaders of the nation. To nurture youths of high calibre, we have to upgrade the quality of pre-school teachers. Yet, the salary of pre-school teachers is low while the work is tough and comes with great responsibilities. That makes it more difficult to attract caring and competent individuals to join this profession. Youths also perceive early-childhood teaching as a hard and thankless job. Since early-childhood teaching job does not appeal to them, they will not consider it as a job option. To look after and teach little children requires one not only to be energetic but also caring and patient.
Pre-school teachers should preferably be conversant in both Chinese and English. Currently, many childcare centres and kindergartens would hire English and Chinese teachers to take turns or jointly look after the children. The problem is some pre-school teachers are foreign teachers who do not have training in early-childhood education. Some (such as those from China and India) speak with a heavy accent either in Mandarin or English while others might chide or punish the pre-school kids rashly, thus casting a psychological shadow over young minds.
Early childhood education is a specialised field of study. How much should be taught in early childhood education, how a pre-schooler should be taught in order to develop his lifelong desire to learn, how he can learn to interact with other children and master the foundation knowledge of languages and Mathematics through music and games, are part of this specialised field. There have been more diploma courses for early childhood education made available lately but most of the students are foreigners and new permanent residents rather than Singaporeans. Is this due to the slow pay increases or are there other reasons? I hope that the authorities would look into the matter and monitor closely.