PM Says new Stat Board to oversee pre-school education
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Ooooops, perhaps I shd clarify that preschool, in my definition, is from N1 to K2
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Autumnb, so how ar? Have you enroll your ds2 in that cc I told you?
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If you really wanna expose the kids to social interaction, then childcare is probably the better bet.
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Thought I’d chip in my 5 cents worth.
Parents and children are key stakeholders in the field and our children who are the main people being affected, unfortunately, cannot articulate for themselves what is benefiting or not benefiting them. Sometimes if they are unhappy at school, they show us by crying or show reluctance to go to to school. But how much impact is school making on our child intellectually, emotionally, psychologically, socially, spiritually, physically, we all have our criteria of what is good enough. What is a set of criteria that cuts across all different strata of society?
So we ask for some independent party like the govt or a stat board to help us define these criteria. I’ve mixed feelings about having a stat board overseeing this pre-school scene. I guess we’ll have to see what parameters the stat board is given. What would be helpful is to set minimum standards about what is "sufficient knowledge or skills" required" for children to function at Primary 1.
I suspect many parents are also concerned about the exorbitant rates set by childcare or preschool providers and hope the new stat board can control that somewhat - but that’s free market forces at play. I’m not sure how far the government can control that given that it’s about demand and supply and the private operators themselves are subjected to the whims & fancies of building owners. Having put through 3 children through childcare and preschool, I’ve been fortunate never to have suffered any fee increases at 3 different childcare centres and preschools that I’ve placed my children in for the duration of 3-4 years that they spend at the centre.
As for pedagogical standards, I think there are many experts in the early childhood arena who can step forward to work in partnership with the new stat board. I believe a partnership is needed. A collaborative sharing culture of what works well for the pre-school years. Because currently, it’s a free market, few industry players would find it beneficial to share resources or teaching methods. Even at Primary school, we already see differing standards and it’s run by the government, what more in an open competition, why should I as a market leader share what’s good preschool teaching with others. In that sense, I think the govt can come in to observe, investigate and then become a central party that brings different expertise in the pre-school market to share their learnings with each other and then bring up the level of teaching as a whole.
At the moment, parents too sometimes struggle to discern what’s a good preschool. Perhaps the new stat board can provide a guidebook to parents to teach them to observe what’s a good environment, what does it mean what people say "learn through play", what is age-appropriate learning, what is accelerated learning, what is stressful learning, what are signs that teachers are doing good teaching vs teachers who are not doing good teaching.
I remembered having to consult several of my friends and more research on my own before I could decide what’s a good pre-school or childcare. When I sent my children to a Montesorri school, I remembered seeing at least 4-5 different Montessori schools and each of the centre’s directress were trained with 3 different Montesorri academies, and to a layperson, it’s hard to tell the difference but on consulting with people with the "insider" information, it’s slightly easier to discern good apples from bad ones, bona fide from wanna-be’s. There are also other kinds of schools eg schools based on the Italian Reggio Emilia’s philosophy, plus other brand-names, too many to name.
So to help parents to navigate beyond the brand names, I think it’s helpful for the stat board to help parents to discern what’s the critical factors that ALL brand names would have. Easier said than done lah, coz it can also be in motherhood statements eg good teachers, good student-teacher ratio. I mean it has to go beyond that. It can’t always be about subjective views, right? I guess it’s good if there can be some kind of friendly audit or award system that tells us we’re going to a centre with fairly good standards in terms of A, B, C. So that in the end you could have an Etonhouse standing next to a neighbourhood preschool with similar rating in terms of reading programme effectiveness, but the Etonhouse may score better in terms of other value-addedness that a neighbourhood preschool may not have.
Anyway these are just some off-the-top-of-my-head musings at the moment. -
I think that the new stat board need to coordinate with moe so that both are in line and the transition from preschool to primary is smooth.
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Sending kids to 2 kindergartens is kiasu lah.
My hubby told me his colleague sends his son to St James in the morn and Nanyang in the afternoon :faint: Eat sandwiches in the car in between. Poor kid is stressed out before primary school.
It's about time MOE regulates kindergarten syllabus. For one thing, P1 is not an extension of play in some primary schools. 汉语拼音 was not taught when daughter was in K2 . I didn't send my daughter for any lessons to learn that, and she suffered in P1 last year.
Her 听写 in K2 was crazy...6 sentences long every week instead. I will never forget that. She cried every week. -
Imami:
Actually, you'll be surprised... think Funz shared this before, from her own experience running a preschool.Erm... Are there really parents who urge the childcare ctr or preschools to teach more? Even better, are there childcare ctrs or preschools who take the oarents' comments seriously (I.e. To teach more)?
Sounds strange to me... Do parents know better ( as to how much more is enough)? It is something new to me, I hv never thought of telling the cc to teach more. I always accept what they tell me.
In fact, I did once ask (note: ask only hor, never demand that they should teach more) my DD's K1 teacher why were they still learning to count from 1 to 10 (I think, can't exactly remember the details) since they had already learnt that in N2. The reply was that they have different approaches to learning the numbers 1-10. It could be to count backwards, simple number bonds, etc. After listening to her explanation, I trust that the school knows what it is doing, which is to build a strong foundation for the children. -
2hotTOhandle:
Maybe you are right. In a childcare, as hours are long, the kids would probably have done all their writing in school and therefore no hw to bring home.
I am not sure about the amount of hw. I thought this is the norm for K2. I wonder if there is any diff between kindy and childcare?FairyPenguin:
Hi 2hotTOhandle,
I'm surprise your DD1 has a fair bit of hw to do in K2. Mine also K2, next yr P1 but her childcare doesn't give her any hw. This semester, they just started on ting xie & spelling (5 words weekly). No essay writing at all so my DD is very relaxed on weekdays...watch tv & korean drama, play games on ipad, go playground & cycling etc. On weekends, she goes for piano & abacus. Comparatively, my friends' children have more hectic schedules...swimming, drawing, ballet, language courses & the list goes on.
Yes, Imp 75 is right. Don't compare or it makes me nervous sometimes. Easier said than done though. -
From the Lien Foundation report which stated that we are ranked 29th out of 45, it appears that our curriculum is not the problem.
http://www.lienfoundation.org/pdf/news/s_press_release.pdf
[quote]Most of Singapore’s weaknesses showed up in the area of ‘quality’, which includes factors like ‘student--‐teacher ratio’, ‘average preschool teacher wages’, ‘preschool teacher training’ and ‘linkages between preschool and primary school’. All top ten countries on the Index have ratios ranging from one teacher to five to 11 children, compared to Singapore’s 1:20 ratio. [/quote] -
Nebbermind:
If you really wanna expose the kids to social interaction, then childcare is probably the better bet.
Agreed!
Especially for girls, it was really quite a challenge when they are at the K1/K2 level :roll:
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