Press Releases
Improving the Quality of Pre-school Education
The Government will introduce two new measures to further improve the quality of pre-school education. From January 2009, MOE will raise the minimum academic qualifications of pre-school teachers. This will apply to both kindergarten and childcare centre teachers. A voluntary quality assurance and accreditation framework for pre-schools will also be introduced from 2011. To support the shift towards higher minimum teacher qualifications, the Government will provide additional funding support for eligible pre-school centres, as well as bursaries for teachers to upgrade their academic and professional qualifications.
The Committee on Improving Quality of Pre-School Education, chaired by Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Education) Mr Masagos Zulkifli and comprising officials from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), recommended these measures after completing a year-long review of the quality of pre-school education in Singapore.
Rationale
Since 2000, MOE has focused on ways to improve the quality of pre-school education, including raising teacher quality. In 2001, MOE set the minimum academic and professional qualifications of pre-school teachers. As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of pre-school education, it is now timely for us to raise minimum teacher qualifications.
The educational profile of our population has also shifted over time. While less than one-fifth of Primary 1 students had at least one parent who had post-secondary education twenty years ago, the ratio has increased to one-half today. Parents have thus become more well-educated, and have higher expectations of the standard of pre-school education for their children. A better-educated population also means that there is now a bigger pool of candidates with better qualifications who can become pre-school teachers.
As the pre-school landscape continues to evolve, we have to ensure that all our children, especially those from lower-income families, are able to access good quality pre-school education and have a good foundation for learning before they attend primary school.
Raising Pre-school Teachers’ Minimum Qualifications
The current minimum qualifications for pre-school teachers, effective from 2001, are 3 O-Level credits[1] [including a credit in English Language (EL)] and a Certificate in Pre-School Teaching (CPT).
MOE will raise the minimum qualifications for pre-school teachers as follows:
- From January 2009, all new pre-school teachers[2] must have 5 O-Level credits, including EL[3], and a Diploma in Pre-School Education-Teaching (DPE-T). The DPE-T can be obtained within four years of joining the pre-school sector.
- From January 2013, existing pre-school teachers[4] must obtain an O-Level credit in EL or pass an EL proficiency test, and obtain a DPE-T to teach K1 and K2 classes. There will be no change to the requirements for existing pre-school teachers to teach pre-nursery or nursery classes. The changes are summarised in Table 1 below. The January 2013 timeline for existing teachers will enable those who do not meet the new requirements to upgrade themselves.
Table 1: New Requirements for Pre-School Teachers
| Minimum Qualification | Current | CAT A - New Teachers (for all levels, from January 2009) | Existing Teachers (from January 2013) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAT B- K1 / K2 | CAT C- Pre-Nursery / Nursery | |||
| Academic | ≥ 3 O-Level credits, including EL | ≥ 5 O-Level credits, including EL | ≥ 3 O-Level credits, including EL | ≥ 3 O-Level credits, including EL |
| Professional | Certificate in Pre-School Teaching | Diploma in Pre-School Teaching | Diploma in Pre-School Teaching | Certificate in Pre-School Teaching |
In addition, each pre-school centre should have at least 75% of all its teachers (K1/K2 and pre-nursery/nursery teachers together) meeting Cat A and Cat B requirements by January 2013. Hence at least 75% of all teachers in the centre should meet these requirements:
- New teachers with at least 5 O-Level credits, including EL, and a DPE-T (Cat A of Table 1); and
- Existing teachers with an O-Level credit in EL, or a pass in an EL proficiency test, and a DPE-T (Cat B of Table 1).
A centre can retain existing teachers who do not meet these requirements if they teach at the nursery or pre-nursery level (i.e. not at K1/K2), but these teachers should comprise less than 25% of all teachers in the centre.
MOE will also improve on the quality of teacher training by raising standards in current pre-school teacher training courses. The revisions are expected to be completed by mid- 2008 and the enhanced standards will take effect from 2009.
MOE and MCYS will provide bursaries for pre-school teachers to undergo academic and professional upgrading. The bursaries offered will generally cover 80% of the course fee and include a book allowance per year.
MOE and MCYS will also work with professional bodies to present awards to outstanding pre-school teachers. These awards will help to identify and build up a pool of teacher mentors to develop teaching expertise in the pre-school sector. Apart from sharing their good teaching practices with their peers, these teacher mentors would also have opportunities to attend mentoring courses, as well as overseas conferences and study trips.
MOE will provide additional funding to eligible kindergartens that receive MOE’s Recurrent Grant, so that their fees will remain affordable. This is important as these kindergartens cater to children from lower and middle-income families. The annual Recurrent Grant will be increased from the current $17 million to $33 million by 2013.
Voluntary Quality Assurance and Accreditation
To encourage pre-school providers to further uplift their standards and strive for greater excellence in pre-school education, MOE and MCYS will develop a voluntary quality assurance and accreditation framework and implement it from January 2011. Through this framework, pre-school providers will be able to benchmark their education outcomes through self-appraisal and external assessment. Pre-school providers that meet specified standards may then apply to receive accreditation status.
To support pre-schools in these efforts, MOE will provide all pre-schools with curriculum resources, such as a curriculum planning guide with sample lesson plans. MOE and MCYS will also provide grants to non-profit pre-schools to purchase teaching and learning resources such as books and educational software. All pre-school providers may also apply for innovation grants to innovate and experiment so as to enhance their quality of teaching and learning.
Background
Since 2000, MOE has introduced various measures to improve the quality of pre-school education, such as developing a curriculum framework, introducing training and qualification requirements for teachers, accrediting teacher training courses and raising the English proficiency of pre-school teachers. In recent years, we have also put in place more strategies to increase participation in pre-school. These include partnering with community agencies to reach out to children not attending pre-school and providing Focused Language Assistance in Reading (FLAiR) in more kindergartens to help children from disadvantaged families acquire foundational skills in English.
The Committee on Improving Quality of Pre-School Education was set up in January 2007. Apart from taking stock of the adequacy of current approaches in enabling children from low-income families to gain access to high quality pre-school education, the Committee also identified ways to raise the overall quality of pre-school education. The review involved study trips to other countries, as well as focus group discussions with pre-school operators, teachers and parents.