Policy Developments in Pre-School Education in Singapore: A Focus on the Key Reforms of Kindergarten Education

Historically, the Singapore education system is based on a pragmatic approach whereby economic functionality remains a cornerstone of educational policies. Over the 42 years since independence, the government has actively sought to maximise Singapore’s economic potential by investing heavily in building a first class formal education system catering for all from the age of seven. The aims of Singapore’s education system have undergone three major paradigm shifts from a “survival-driven education” in the 1960s where the focus was on providing school places so that all citizens had access to learning basic numeric and literacy skills, and equipping them with technical skills needed to support industrialization, to an “efficiency-driven system” in the late 1970s where the focus was on reducing attrition and to an “ability-driven system” initiated in 1997 where efforts were made to mass customise programmes catering to the diverse needs and talents of children to allow them to realise their potential as the nation moved into preparing children for a knowledge-based economy.

In Singapore, formal school education begins at Primary One where it is compulsory for all children to start school in January of the year which they would turn seven. Even though pre-school education before the primary years is not compulsory and is provided entirely by the private sector, the majority of Singaporean children are attending pre-school currently. Therefore, instead of mandating pre-school education for all, the government aims to target its efforts in areas which would give the greatest leverage on raising the quality of pre-school education, especially for children from less advantaged homes, and in getting the small number who do not attend pre-school to do so.

Pre-school education had not always been entirely provided by the private sector. The Ministry of Education (MOE) had previously experimented with the provision of kindergarten education within the formal education system in order to facilitate the learning of English Language and Chinese Language by admitting children into primary schools at the age of five. This took the form of a one-year Pre-Primary Programme (1979–1990) and the Preparatory-Year Programme (1991–1993) in selected primary schools. However, due to a significant increase in funding and manpower resources for an extra year of schooling, these experimental programmes had been terminated since 1994 to allow schools to concentrate on upgrading the formal education system starting at Primary One.

Pre-school education in Singapore is made up mainly of the child care sector and the kindergarten sector. Child care centres, which are licensed by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), provide care and education for children from two months to six years old. Kindergartens, on the other hand, provide education for four to six-year-olds and are registered with the Ministry of Education (MOE). All child care centres are regulated under the Child Care Centres Act (1988) while kindergartens are regulated under the Education Act (1958).

Singapore has a high pre-school participation rate of more than 95% of children ages four to six years being enrolled in either one of the 488 kindergartens or 721 child care centres. This excludes children who may be home schooled or receiving pre-school education in international schools, special education schools, playgroups and other enrichment centres.

Both kindergartens and child care centres, commonly referred to as pre-schools in the Singapore context, provide a formalized three-year pre-school education programme in Nursery classes for four-year-olds, Kindergarten One classes for five-year-olds and Kindergarten Two classes for six-year-olds. All pre-schools in Singapore are run by the private sector, including community foundations, religious bodies, social organizations and business organizations. In 2006, 77% of four to six-year-olds had attended MOE-registered kindergartens. Amongst this group of children, about 62% had attended kindergartens operated by the People’s Action Party Community Foundation (PCF). This group of community-based kindergartens charges low fees and caters to a large number of children from the lower income families.

Under the Education Act, kindergartens have to be registered with MOE. A kindergarten is eligible for registration by MOE if it fulfils the following requirements: (i) suitable premises approved for use as kindergartens and meeting all health and safety requirements stipulated by the relevant authorities; (ii) a programme that is assessed by MOE to be appropriate for young children; (iii) principals and teachers meeting the minimum academic and professional qualifications stipulated by MOE; and (iv) a properly constituted management committee to administer and manage the kindergarten efficiently. All registered kindergartens run a programme that lasts two hours for Nursery classes and between three and four hours for the kindergarten classes.

There is a universal government subsidy for child care fees and needy families are eligible for further financial assistance from the government or nongovernment agencies. Kindergarten fees are generally lower and financial assistance schemes are also available for poor children. Furthermore, families with more than one child can benefit from a government subsidy introduced in 2001, known as the Children Development Co-Savings (Baby Bonus) Scheme, to pay for their children’s pre-school fees.

It is now widely-recognized that quality early education is important as it helps in forming the abilities of a child for lifelong learning. With increasing challenges and competitions arising from globalization and a knowledge-based economy, the effective use of communications and information technology, and knowledge is the key to economic and social advancements. Education must equip our young with good values and dispositions, relevant knowledge and skills for the new economy and society in this new millennium. As such, now, more and more educators see learners as central to the learning process. They recognize the need to cater to different learners and they know that they must use flexible strategies to promote effective learning. Teachers are seeing themselves as facilitators in this learning process. Following the emphasis on learners, the curriculum has to take into account the needs for knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be developed through different means and strategies to cater to individual differences.

Kindergarten principals are increasingly required to be effective instructional leaders and classroom teachers are required to perform as effective facilitators. Principals and teachers have to design curriculum and instructional activities in an integrated manner that enables holistic development of a child. Equally important is that kindergartens have to ensure that the curriculum creates a smooth transition for children to move from the nursery to kindergarten and from preschool to primary schooling.

Recent studies on critical periods have continued to conclude that experiences during the first few years are important because they provide the foundation for all future learning and development. High quality early education programmes do make a difference (Bailey, 2002). Recent research briefs published pointed out that high-quality early childhood education enhances school readiness and reduces racial and ethnic achievement gaps (American Educational Research Association, 2005; Boots, 2005). It has become increasingly more essential to provide access to high-quality early childhood programmes to the most vulnerable children because of their greatest need and the higher return on the public’s investment (Karoly & Bigelow, 2005).

Early education is linked to educational benefits resulting from effects on children’s attitudes to learning, their self-esteem and task orientation, rather than preschool-induced higher IQs (Cotton & Faires-Conklin, 2001; Zigler & Styfco, 2003). Studies on the Perry Preschool Project show behavioural differences between pre-school participants and non-participants are either maintained or increased over time (Schweinhart, 2005).

There is a wealth of research showing that children who start school behind their peers, particularly on more than one dimension of school readiness, have difficulty coping with the demands of formal education. As much as half of school failure may be attributable to gaps in learning and development even before school entry. It is generally believed that the cost of school “unreadiness” to society itself is great, not only in lost education and productivity costs, but also in increased remediation and compensatory services and public safety costs (Wertheimer & Croan, 2003).

Researchers studying the “Flynn Effect” (Plucker, 2002) have noted that over the past century, average IQ has been increasing at a rate of about three points per decade. This intellectual progress could be caused by a combination of factors that are related to the general progress in quality of life. Generally, the increased complexity of life is likely to stimulate an increased complexity of mind. Parents nowadays also tend to pay much more attention to their children, thus stimulating their cognitive development. This implies that the social divide between the families that have and have not would cause even wider achievement gaps for their children.

Singapore has been paying increased attention to pre-school education in recent years. The stepped-up attention to the early years stems from stronger public awareness of the importance of quality early childhood education in children’s learning and development. There is also a growing recognition that a long-term measure to combat social inequities is to offer children from less-advantaged homes with a good foundation for life-long learning and a good chance to succeed in life through quality pre-school education.

In 1999, MOE forged a policy framework to raise the quality of pre-school education in Singapore through judicious and measured involvement in high-leverage areas which will have a significant impact on future learning outcomes while retaining provision in the hands of the private sector. Under the policy framework, MOE has embarked upon various initiatives since 2000 which focused on defining desired outcomes, developing a curriculum framework, establishing systems and structures for teacher training, introducing self-appraisal for quality improvements, and enhancing school readiness of disadvantaged children.

The Singapore government has been paying increased attention to pre-school education in recent years. MOE has put in place structures and resources for systemic improvements in the kindergarten sector, particularly in the design of the kindergarten curriculum and the quality of kindergarten principals and teachers. Besides systemic measures, MOE has also embarked on active intervention measures to help kindergarten children who are struggling with English and those who are not attending pre-school. The policy developments and new initiatives in pre-school education in Singapore over the years have facilitated a positive direction towards achieving higher quality pre-school provision.

Moving forward, MOE will continue to review how the overall quality of pre-school education can be further enhanced, especially in the areas of teacher capacity and training, curriculum resources, and quality assurance. Greater attention will also be focused on ensuring children from lower-income families are able to access high quality pre-school education.