Changes to the Early Childhood Sector – A Parent’s Perspective

The Role Of Parents

More support can be made available to help these children, and that support might need to be directed at the parents. Some years ago, I attended a meeting to set up a Parent School, which I thought (and still think) is a genius idea. Most times, I am clueless as to how to parent and whether I am doing the right thing. I remember thinking how much simpler it is to be able to drive than to be a parent – one has to pass a series of tests to be able to drive a motor vehicle in Singapore, ensuring that the driver has all the necessary know-how before being bestowed with the responsibility of driving on the roads.

Parenting a child, too, is a huge responsibility which bears serious consequences if not executed correctly. While it is not feasible to decide who should be allowed to be parents, what we can perhaps do is to help new parents by having crash courses on parenting.

Last year, I attended a course on teaching children how to read. I learnt much more than simply how to teach a child how to read. I knew the importance of language and communication, but I had been oblivious as to just how much it impacts a child’s future academic performance and success. Simply put, a child who does not get exposed much to language (be it the English language or Mother Tongue language), is at a disadvantage. Ideally, the learning journey and exposure to rich language should start at home. But not all parents know how to help their children. Hence, intervention programmes targeted at parents will help them at the very least to gain understanding of the importance of early childhood education, before they can help their children (or seek help for them).

Early Childhood Educators Finally Get Acknowledged

The second issue raised, about providing better remuneration to early childhood educators is long overdue. These teachers do the tough job of teaching, nurturing, nursing and parenting our children while we are at work. Picking up my children from the childcare centre years ago, the teachers will share what my son ate, the activities he partook in, how much milk he drank, his naptime, diaper changing time, and so on. They are responsible for so much, had to spend years training to be a professional in their field, not get to enjoy school holidays as other teachers do, and at times, are faced with difficult parents. To top it off, they are grossly underpaid. In fact, it was one of the reasons I had to reconsider my decision to teach in a preschool, unfortunately.

Hopefully with the government setting up a centralised training institute for early childhood educators, they can level the benefits for early childhood educators to that of MOE teachers. Research has shown that early childhood educators in Singapore are underpaid and there are high turnover rates in the industry⁴. Such factors “impact(s) quality primarily by preventing qualified and committed individuals from considering working in childcare or early education in the first place” (Manlove and Guzell, 1997). The high turnover rates (Moon and Burbank, 2004) affect children’s language and socio-emotional development as well as the relationships they form with their teachers (Whitebook 2002; Torquati 2007). The low salaries also lead to the perception that working in the early childhood education sector is not a high-status profession (Ackerman, 2006)⁵.

Changes to Special Needs Sector

Finally, I was hoping that there would be mention of developments to education for special needs children. Parents with special needs children who are cognitively sound and capable of academic learning, but are faced with other challenges such as behavioural and socialisation issues, for example, children with high-functioning autism, might face issues when trying to find schooling options for their children. Given that the number of children with developmental and other issues in Singapore is on the rise, the needs of these children should not be overlooked.

Undeniably, Singapore has a well thought out education system that does provide options for the special community. However, there is only one special school that offers a mainstream curriculum in a special setting in Singapore today, which will allow the children to sit for national examinations. It is incredibly hard and stressful trying to get our special children a place in such a school. More options for early intervention as well as government-initiated enrichment and co-curricular programmes catered to special children will help them in their overall development and learning, as well as getting them the opportunity to enjoy music, sports and arts like other children.

It would also be beneficial to have more inclusive preschools where both neurotypical and special needs children can study alongside each other, and that provides early intervention for the special needs children. Currently, only Kindle Garden, run by non-profit AWWA provides this, and charges an arm, a leg and a kidney for its school feels (fees for full-day childcare will be increased to $1,880 a month from next January). The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has announced plans to build an “Inclusive Preschool”.

Such inclusive preschools are win-win, where neurotypical children can get to better understand their peers with special needs. The children with mild to moderate special needs learn to integrate with others, and should they be enrolled in a mainstream primary school later on, they will be familiar with the setting, class sizes and expected behaviours related to a normal classroom.

I am optimistic that the education sector in Singapore will continue to improve and develop. What could be a better investment and reward for ourselves, than to ensure our children receive a well-rounded education, and are accorded the same opportunities to learn and achieve their dreams?