Abstract
Abstract Since 2000, the pre-school landscape in Singapore has been evolving and changing more rapidly than before. The interest of raising the quality of pre-school education is evident in the introduction of new policies and implementation of new initiatives in the last six years. These policy developments have resulted in significant changes in various aspects of the quality standards of pre-school education in Singapore. This paper presents the context of pre-school education policy and practice in Singapore and highlights recent key reforms introduced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in order to promote quality kindergarten education.
Highlights
Singapore is a small and compact city-state in South East Asia that has a total land area of 704 km2 and a rich racial and cultural diversity
Among the 3.61 million Singapore residents in 2006 (Department of Statistics, 2007), 75.2% are Chinese, 13.6% are Malays, 8.8% are Indians and the remaining 2.4% are of other ethnic groups
A system of compulsory saving was implemented across the workforce, and saving was promoted in schools
Summary
Since 2000, the pre-school landscape in Singapore has been evolving and changing more rapidly than before. 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. 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 widely-recognized that quality early education is important as it helps in forming the abilities of a child for lifelong learning. This implies that the social divide between the families that have and have not would cause even wider achievement gaps for their children
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