Speeches
FY 2011 Committee of Supply Debate: 4th Reply by Mr Masagos Zulkifli BMM, Minister of State for Education and Home Affairs, on Strengthening Education for All
Mr Chairman, Minister spoke of MOE’s commitment in ensuring that all Singaporeans have access to quality education, and equal access to opportunities to excel to the best that they can be. I will further elaborate on MOE’s efforts in ensuring quality and accessibility for pre-school education, and highlight some of the targeted support that MOE provides for our learners.
(I) Enhancing the Quality of Pre-School Education
MOE recognises that pre-school education is important. We discussed this at length during the debate on the Parliamentary Motion raised by NMP Viswa. I will therefore refrain from repeating myself and highlight only the key points.
Brief Recap and Progress Update of Recent Initiatives
Let me use the opportunity arising from the cuts raised by Mrs Josephine Teo, Dr Mohamad Maliki and Mr Christopher de Souza, to briefly provide a progress update on some of our initiatives.
First, a recap on raising teacher quality. From January 2009, MOE and MCYS require all new teachers to have minimum entry academic qualifications of 5 O-Level credits including a B4 in English1. Incumbent teachers are also required to attain a basic level of English proficiency. Before this, in 2006, the minimum requirement for pre-school teachers was only three O-Level credits including English. On top of the academic requirements, all pre-school teachers are required to attain the Diploma in Early Childhood Care & Education-Teaching (DECCE-T). As of Jan 2011, 86% of kindergarten teachers and 70% of childcare teachers have attained the DECCE-T or are undergoing training for it, as compared to 55% of kindergarten teachers and 46% of childcare teachers just five years ago.
To help boost the overall quality of teachers over time, we set a target for all pre-schools to have at least 75% of all its teachers meeting the new requirements by January 2013. I am happy to update that we are well on our way to meeting the 2013 target. Latest figures show that 77.4% of kindergartens and 69.6% of childcare centres have already achieved this target.
Next, on enhancing accessibility and affordability of pre-school education. MOE and our partners2 have been painstakingly knocking on doors to ensure that no child, especially those from lower-income families, is deprived of a pre-school education. Our commitment and persistence have paid off. I am happy to update that the percentage of P1-going age children who did not attend pre-school in 2010 was 1.1% - down from 5% just five years ago in 2006. Let me thank all the grassroots partners, MCYS and the Singapore Children’s Society for their continued support in the annual exercise to reach out to our children.
MCYS and the community groups provide financial assistance to the lower-income families. This year, the Minister for Finance announced additional support for MCYS’ financial assistance schemes for pre-school education and childcare fees. He also announced a new Child Development Credit Scheme, where the credit can be used for pre-school fees for all Singaporean children aged six and below.
On top of these targeted financial assistance, MOE has invested $150 million in the pre-school sector over the last five years to support the pre-school initiatives that MOE has introduced. We have seen good progress as outlined earlier. We plan to double MOE’s investment in pre-school education over the next five years to $290 million, to continue to uplift the quality of the pre-school sector.
Strengthening Capabilities of Pre-school Educators
Mr Chairman, investing in high quality teachers and school leaders is an imperative for MOE. MOE and MCYS have disbursed a total of $5.08 million for 311 scholarships, teaching awards and bursaries since 2008. These are tenable for incumbent teachers, principals, and pre-service teachers from childcare centres and not-for-profit kindergartens to upgrade themselves professionally.
MOE and MCYS will do more. Starting from 2011, MOE and MCYS will provide up to 1400 scholarships, bursaries and teaching awards over three years. This will cost up to $21 million over the next three years, and if fully awarded, will represent more than a four-fold increase when compared to the amount we have awarded in the previous three years.
This additional support will help grow a pool of well-qualified pre-school educators through attracting new entrants into the sector, as well as providing opportunities for professional upgrading for existing educators. Some educators may wish to consider developing their leadership skills to take on leadership positions, in which case the leadership courses would be appropriate; while others may opt to deepen their skills in a teaching area, and hence pursue certificate courses in areas such as Music and Movement, Drama, or Chinese Education.
These awards are therefore tenable at different Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) courses to meet the various upgrading needs of pre-school educators.
Mrs Josephine Teo asked if a NIE type of pre-school education set-up could be considered for the training of early childhood educators. I would like to assure Mrs Teo that MOE and MCYS are putting in place such a system. But unlike the school sector which has only one main employer, which is MOE, and one pre-service training provider, which is NIE, the pre-school sector is more diverse and our quality assurance structures must reflect this difference. The Pre-school Qualification Accreditation Committee (PQAC) jointly steered by MOE and MCYS, sets standards for certificate and diploma level pre-school teacher preparation courses, and accredits courses that have met these standards.
Raising Quality of Pre-School Centres
Apart from investing in teacher quality, MOE launched the new Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework (or SPARK for short) in November 2010, to help kindergartens and childcare centres improve the quality of their programmes and to learn to benchmark themselves against recognised quality standards.
Information on pre-schools that participated in SPARK and have attained accreditation will be listed on the MOE website. Since January 2011, pre-schools have started applying for quality assessments by MOE’s SPARK assessors. MOE hopes that with the widespread adoption of SPARK over the next few years, the quality rating of pre-schools will help parents make informed and objective choices about the right pre-school for their children, a concern raised by Mrs Josephine Teo. An update on the accreditation outcomes of SPARK will be provided later this year.
Encouraging Innovation to Drive Excellence
Mrs Josephine Teo also pointed out that innovation is one way to uplift the quality of the pre-school sector. Indeed, kindergartens are encouraged to engage in innovative practices, and to experiment with new ideas to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in pre-school. More than half a million dollars have been awarded by MOE to 144 kindergartens through the Kindergarten Innovation Grant since 2008.
The Experimental Kindergarten at Temasek Polytechnic, which I announced at COS last year and commenced operations this year, also contributes to this innovation drive. The Experimental Kindergarten serves both as a centre for research in curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood education – and as a test bed for research to be applied to Singapore’s local context.
(II) Strengthening Targeted Support for Learners
Ensuring that our children start early in preschool is one of the many effective means to level up society through education. Mr Lim Biow Chuan and Mr Hri Kumar are correct to say that even then, we should be concerned about students who continue to require additional support to help them level up, especially if these students are less able to afford external assistance.
Additional Support for Our Learners
Mr Hri Kumar talked about a school model which starts at 7 am and ends at 7pm, with two to three hours homework after school. This is even longer than the working hours of an adult! Mr Hri Kumar then suggested making it compulsory for students to attend extra classes after school, and to even restrict students’ choices of CCAs so that they will not spend too much time on CCAs.
As Mr Hri Kumar admitted himself, such an approach is indeed ‘draconian’! This is not the approach that MOE takes. CCAs are an important part of school life, and play a key role in the holistic development of our students, which no student should be deprived of.
A well-organised and well-implemented CCA can inculcate values, develop qualities such as resilience, fair play, discipline and team spirit. These qualities are equally important to all students, and especially so for students from less privileged backgrounds. Specifying that weaker students to be excused from CCA would curtail many meaningful activities and developmental opportunities for our students. Over-imposing curriculum on our students also does not address the fact that some children learn better through different means.
While we are on the issue of CCAs, NMP Joscelin Yeo makes an assertion that, deprived of a choice of a CCA, a student committed suicide. We should be sympathetic to any family that has suffered a suicide within, and acknowledge that the reasons for suicides are multi-faceted, complex, and many times, very personal. What the member should really show is that there is evidence that for every or many suicides, the victim had the first choice of CCA deprived, instead of picking up a single and local report to make her case.
Going back to Mr Hri Kumar’s point, MOE’s approach is to ensure that targeted programmes are put in place at various levels to ensure that our learners receive appropriate help. This is precisely what Mr Lim Biow Chuan suggested.
FLAiR for Pre-school Children
Because almost all our children attend pre-school, a targeted programme called FLAiR (Focused Language Assistance in Reading) is provided to children found to require additional assistance in English. As some children lack exposure at home, FLAiR provides the opportunity to be exposed to reading materials, writing experiences, and speaking and listening to English Language in an engaging and fun way.
A good example of a child who has benefited from FLAiR is Prathira d/o Palanivelu from PCF Jalan Besar Blk 106. Initially a very quiet and reserved girl, she blossomed under the FLAiR programme to show great progress in her reading, writing and listening skills.
Learning Support Programmes for English and Mathematics at Primary Schools
FLAiR seeks to develop at an early age, important communication skills and their love for acquiring knowledge through reading books, writing, speaking and listening. But proper reading, writing and numeracy skills may not be as developed for some. For these students, MOE has instituted additional programmes to help students level up when they first enter Primary Schools. The Learning Support Programmes for English and Mathematics are administered by additional teachers to help students who had less prior exposure and require more support. These programmes help students acquire a stronger foundation of the English Language and Mathematics respectively.
Catering for Different Learning Styles in Secondary Schools
At the secondary school level, innovations are introduced to customise to the learning needs of students.
We also recognise that some students are more technically inclined, and prefer a more hands-on pedagogical approach. Since 2005, schools can offer 20 to 30 hour elective modules (EMs) to enrich the learning experience of their Normal (Academic), or Normal (Technical) students. These modules are intended to develop students’ interests and strengths in specific areas, as well as introduce students to a course of study in post-secondary education institutes. Some of the EMs also provide credit points for advanced standing for any Nitec courses at ITE.
Since 2007, MOE has also worked with three secondary schools, termed “N(T) Mark II schools”, to pilot innovations in the N(T) course. These schools work closely with MOE and ITE to customise their curricula to bring about a greater focus on practice-oriented skills. Students also have the opportunity to do industrial attachments and internships, as an integral part of the schools’ programmes.
We hope these approaches will allow our secondary students to enjoy their learning and acknowledge its relevance in a real-life context. This enhances the level of student engagement in school and helps pre-empt school drop-outs.
Keeping Youths Engaged in Schools
Mr Christopher de Souza and Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked how we can help at-risk youth to stay in school. MOE’s initiatives to strengthen targeted support for learners are important, not just to help students level up, but also keep them engaged in schools by adapting to their learning needs and preferences.
The overall dropout rate, or the percentage of the Primary One cohort who do not complete secondary education, has further reduced from 1.2% in 2009 to 1% in 2010. This is an improvement over the drop-out rate of about 3% before the Committee on Reducing Attrition in Education, which I chair, was first formed in 2006. In addition, a MOE internal survey of students showed that students generally felt satisfied with their school experiences and there has been a positive trend over the years.
Even then, schools continue to monitor the level of student engagement closely. Schools adopt proactive measures such as the provision of pastoral care, social-emotional learning and career guidance programmes to help students build self-esteem, take responsibility for their actions and develop purposefulness in life. Active participation in school activities, such as CCAs, is another effective way of engaging students. In addition, MOE collaborates with other ministries, such as MCYS, MOH and MHA, and the community, such as Family Service Centres and Self-Help Groups. I will elaborate more on the early intervention efforts for youths at-risk at MHA’s COS debate. But I must stress the critical role that parents play in creating a nurturing home environment and help youths build social skills.
Dr Lily Neo quoted a Singapore Children’s Society’s survey that 25% of young respondents said that they were bullied in school. The prevalence of school bullying can be misleading when it is just taken at face value, without deeper understanding of how the figure was derived.
We must qualify to say that the figures represent an entire spectrum of bullying behaviours, which range from ‘teasing’ and ‘being excluded’ to the more severe forms of bullying. Where bullying involves hurting, frightening or intimidating others using power or strength, MOE would like to clarify that these incidents are indeed infrequent and the numbers have so far remained low.
Nevertheless, I want to assure Dr Lily Neo that MOE regards bullying in schools as a serious matter. We will take the necessary measures to ensure that schools provide a safe and conducive learning environment for all our students. Schools are provided with comprehensive guidelines to manage discipline issues and this includes bullying. Teachers also educate their students on what bullying is and its negative repercussions, how they should effectively seek help in the event they encounter bullying and enable them to help themselves and support their peers if affected.
(III) Conclusion
I will now conclude. It is MOE’s commitment that the education system allows every child to be provided with the opportunity to achieve the best he can be.
We are doing the right things – by focusing on the educators to improve quality, affordability and accessibility of pre-school education. We have also rolled out targeted programmes at the pre-school, primary school and secondary school levels to support the students who need additional help, and to keep our youths engaged in schools. We will continue to work closely with all stakeholders, including parents, the community and other agencies, to ensure that educational opportunities are available for all.
Thank you.
Footnotes
- From 2009, the minimum academic and professional qualifications for new teachers registered in both kindergarten and childcare centres was set at 5 O-Level passes, a B4 in EL and a Diploma in Early Childhood Care & Education-Teaching (DECCE-T). As at Jan 2011, about 86% of the teachers in the kindergarten sector (an increase from 38% in 2006) and 69.8% of teachers in the childcare sector have a DECCE-T or are undergoing the course.↩
- MOE’s partners in our Outreach efforts include MCYS, PA, grassroot leaders, kindergartens and child care centres.↩