PRE-SCHOOLS

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the total number of children under 6 years old who are in pre-school, including those in childcare centres under the Ministry of Community Development; (b) what are the basic academic qualifications of early child educationists; (c) what is the total number of such qualified teachers in Singapore; and (d) what measures are being taken to enhance pre-school teachers' quality and classroom teaching.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: The total number of children under 6 years old in Ministry of Education registered kindergartens and Ministry of Community Development registered childcare centres is 104,000 and 43,992 respectively.

The minimum academic qualifications of these kindergarten teachers and childcare teachers are 3 `O' level credits, including English or the Mother Tongue (for MT teachers). For a childcare teacher, he or she has to successfully complete training in childcare recognised by MCD at the intermediate level.

There are 2050 kindergarten teachers and 3767 childcare teachers registered under MOE and MCD respectively, who have such minimum academic qualifications.

A Steering Committee on pre-school education chaired by Dr Aline Wong, Senior Minister of State for Education was set up in November 1999 to oversee the necessary changes which will help to raise the quality of pre-school education in Singapore. This Committee will look into teacher training and also review the guidelines for the accreditation of training programmes.

For childcare centres, MCD has also developed guidelines for diploma courses in early childhood care and education (ECCE). The higher requirement was announced on 1st October 1999 to give the industry sufficient lead-time to prepare and upgrade. The raising of childcare personnel's qualification was widely welcomed by early childhood practitioners as it recognised the importance of childcare personnel in the lives of the young children in their care.