CHILD CARE TRAINING AWARDS

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Acting Minister for Community Development what are the main reasons for the low uptake of child-care training awards his Ministry offered to child-care teachers and what steps his Ministry is taking to increase the number of takers for the training awards.

Mr Abdullah Tarmugi: There are two types of training schemes available for child care teachers:

(a) a three tier in-service training scheme for staff of child care centres; and

(b) a pre-service training scheme for those who wish to take up appointments as child care teachers.

In-service training courses are conducted on a regular basis by training institutes accreditated by MCD. These include the National Institute of Education, Kinderland Learning Centre, NTUC Childcare Co-operative Ltd, Singapore Institute of Management and Association for Child Care Educators. In FY94, a total of 976 teachers were trained, 572 at Basic, 314 at Intermediate and 90 at Advanced levels. We are satisfied with the numbers trained at in-service courses.

The pre-service training scheme was introduced in 1990 by the Ministry to increase the pool of child care teachers by providing pre-service training for those interested in becoming child care teachers. Under the scheme, the Ministry pays for the fees and gives an allowance to the trainees for the duration of the course. The trainees are required to sign an undertaking with the Ministry to work in a child care centre for 2 years after graduation. Upon completion of the course, they are employed by child care centres.

Five pre-service courses have been conducted and a total of 261 persons have been trained. The number of persons attending the pre-service course has however dropped. The main reason given by those who rejected the programme indicate that they find it more attractive to join a child care centre and be sponsored by the centre for the in-service training rather than enrol for the pre-service training. As an untrained child care teacher, they get between $650 pm to $750 pm against the $300 monthly allowance given to them when they attend the pre-service training. Also, the commitment of a full-time course (8 months) is too heavy especially when they have no prior experience working in a child care centre.

We have taken the following steps to increase the intake of the pre-service training programme:

(a) asked child care centres to bring the training programme to the attention of people they know who have expressed an interest in child care work;

(b) conducted a briefing on careers in child care, in particular with reference to the pre-service course;

(c) provided information on the pre-service training through MCD's hotline;

(d) made press releases, press advertisements and an interview with TCS to advertise the course;

(e) made intake more flexible by allowing the training agencies to recruit their own private candidates to the course;

(f) allowed candidates without credit in English in their GCE 'O' Level to do a simplified English proficiency test for admission to the course.

My Ministry will continue to monitor the situation. If the pre-service course continues to be unattractive, we will have to review it. Annex - STATISTICS OF CINEMA HALLS (SINGLE VS CINEPLEX), SEATS AND ATTENDANCE FROM 1990 TO 1994 (Cols. 1567 - 1568)