11 November 2000

Speech by Dr Aline Wong, Senior Minister of State for Education and MP for Tampines GRC (Changkat) at PCF Changkat Education Centre's Graduation Ceremony on 11 Nov 2000 (Sat) at 4 pm at East Spring Primary School,
Tampines St 33

1 I am happy to join all of you this afternoon at the Certificate Presentation-cum-Concert organised by PCF (Changkat ) Education Centres. It is always a pleasure to share the joy and pride of parents as they watch their children graduate from kindergarten and ready to start formal schooling in Primary school. Our teachers too are thrilled to see their young charges graduate, in whom they have devoted so much care and effort during the two years that they spent at our Education Centres. My thanks go to the teachers for their dedication, to the parents for their kind support, and to members of our Management Committee who believe in serving the needs of our community, and in giving the young children a good headstart in life through good quality pre-school education.

2 The quality of pre-school education is an issue that is close to all our hearts. I have, on past occasions, announced that MOE is looking into how the quality of pre-school education in Singapore can be improved further.

3. MOE’s intention is not to take over the provision of pre-school education. Today, different pre-school providers, with their different philosophies and approaches to child development, offer a wide range of pre-school education models in Singapore. Foundations like the PCF and other organisations in the voluntary sector have done a good job in providing pre-school education to thousands of children every year. There is merit in this arrangement, as it promotes healthy competition and provides a fertile arena for innovative practices. MOE intends to allow the private and community sectors to continue providing pre-school education. Within this framework, MOE will look into several crucial areas, like defining outcomes, designing curriculum, training teachers, improving the regulatory framework and conducting research.

4 In March this year, I announced in Parliament that MOE would be conducting a pilot research programme on pre-school education. This is a longitudinal study on the long term cognitive and non-cognitive benefits of pre-school education. We want to find out whether the benefits that studies in other countries have shown are applicable also in our local context, and whether such benefits can be sustained. Findings from the pilot research programme will help MOE to carefully determine what would be the optimal investment in the pre-school sector and guide us in our policy planning.

5. Since the beginning of this year, MOE has been working with the National Institute of Education to design the pilot programme and prepare for its implementation. Such preparations include identifying suitable pre-school centres to participate in the research, developing new curriculum materials for the programme and training teachers in the use of these materials in the pilot centres. The preparations have proceeded smoothly and I am pleased to announce that we will be starting the pilot programme from January next year.

6. The study will involve about 2,000 K1 children from 47 pre-school centres, of which 33 are kindergartens under the PAP Community Foundation and the remaining 14 are NTUC Childcare centres. We have selected these centres based on a set of guidelines. Among them is a requirement that participating centres have a critical mass of children (preferably more than 50 children in both K1 and K2) and offer a good spread of pupils from diverse backgrounds. In addition, the centres should be non-profit making and registered either with MOE or MCDS. They must also have teachers with the necessary qualifications for receiving training under the pilot programme. These guidelines will help to ensure that the research findings are representative of our local pre-school population as well as ensure the smooth implementation of the pilot programme.

7. At this stage, it is still premature for me to disclose the names of the selected centres. This is because the list of participating centres can only be finalised towards January next year, when the K1 registration process and the staffing conditions in pre-school centres have stabilised. Moreover, the professionals from MOE and NIE who are conducting the study would like to do their work away from intense public attention as much as possible, so that the results can be as accurate as possible. Parents whose children are in centres participating in the pilot programme will however be notified before classes start next year.

8. The pilot programme will research into the impact of a new curriculum and teacher-training on children’s intellectual and social growth. The new pre-school materials are designed based on the belief that young children learn best when activities match their age and stage of development. They are developed to promote a balanced growth in five domains, namely, the moral, cognitive, social, emotional and physical domains. Participating teachers will be trained to use these new materials. Some of them will be trained to diploma level and the impact of their diploma training on the quality of pre-school education will be studied.

9. The pilot programme is estimated to cost about $1 m each year over the first two years (for the first cohort of K1 students to complete their two years of pre-school in the selected centres.) This covers the costs of recruitment of research officers, development and field-testing of research instruments, development of curriculum materials, training of teachers, cost of relief teachers when the teachers go for training, setting up a database of K1 children, and so on. Funding will be shared between MOE and the participating organisations with MOE paying for 80% and the participating organisations (i.e. PCF and NTUC Childcare Cooperative) paying for 20%.

10. After the children graduate from K2, we will continue to track their development at the primary school level, to determine if the benefits of their pre-school education are sustained. The pilot programme covers only a limited number of centres. However, MOE is prepared to proceed with upgrading the quality of PSE education on a wider scale after 2 or 3 years if the preliminary findings indicate that longer term results are likely to be good.

11. If you would recall, in March this year, I have also announced the Desired Outcomes for Pre-school Education. The list of desired outcomes focuses on values, attitudes and skills, but makes no mention of specific competencies in reading, writing and arithmetic. This is deliberate, as we want to emphasize that pre-school education is about preparing children for lifelong learning, rather than just preparation for P1. We are mindful that a child needs to learn in fun ways, and his motivation and interest in learning must be nurtured from a tender age. Feeding a child a curriculum that he is not ready for and over-emphasising the academic domain of his development may raise his P1 performance, but it may also dampen his love for learning in the longer term. We want to encourage providers of pre-school education to move away from the current, predominantly academic emphasis towards a more all-round development of the child.

12. How successful our pre-school centres are in providing a conducive environment for children’s growth and learning is equally dependent on what takes place at home. As parents, we are only too aware of the profound influences we have on our children. Our expectations and aspirations have a heavy impact on their learning experiences. If we see the value of helping our children acquire the critical foundations of learning, instead of being overly focused on academic results, our children will end up being better prepared for success in the long term.

13. I look forward to your support of the new MOE initiative to upgrade the quality of pre-school education, for the benefit of all children in Singapore.