Selection process for prospective early childhood educators to be enhanced
Educational therapist Sharon Yeoh using a multi-sensory approach to teach words to children from Leng Kee Care Corner’s childcare centre. PHOTO: OOI BOON KEONG
SINGAPORE — Even as the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) continues to roll out schemes to attract and retain manpower in the early childhood sector, measures will also be introduced to only select individuals who are genuinely interested in the sector, said Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing in Parliament today (Feb 12).
Mr Chan was responding to a supplementary question posed by Member of Parliament (Ang Mo Kio GRC) Intan Azura Mokhtar, who asked if the ministry has been able to lower the attrition rate of pre-school teachers.
“It starts from the selection process. We are instituting new measures to make sure that people who come on board to take the courses are genuinely interested in the early childhood sector and not just take the course, and subsequently leave for another sector,” he said.
Other strategies include encouraging anchor operators to take the lead and offer “fair remuneration” for pre-school teachers, and introducing professional development pathways for all teachers, he said.
About 17,000 new childcare places have also been added over the past two years, said Mr Chan today, who was responding to a parliamentary question tabled by Dr Intan on the progress of setting up new childcare centres.
He added that the ministry is “on track” to meet the target to add 200 new centres, or 20,000 additional childcare places, from 2013 to 2017.
Today, MP Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon GRC) also said there was an “inadequate” number of childcare places in Nee Soon South, given how she has residents requesting for childcare centre places at her Meet-the-People sessions every week.
In response, Mr Chan said his ministry has worked with the Ministry of National Development to ensure that within the new towns, the space required for childcare centres are “in-built and designed into the new buildings”.
As for the shortfall in the childcare places in estates without sufficient void deck space, Mr Chan said he will reveal more details on how to tackle the problem during the upcoming Committee of Supply debate.
Giving an update on the schemes to attract and retain early childhood professionals, Mr Chan said the Early Childhood Career and Education Fair organised last year has helped fill over 200 positions while 50 trainees have also completed a traineeship programme launched last year.
A new ECDA Fellows programme has also been introduced to provide “good-performing” early childhood professionals the opportunities to take on sector-level leadership roles, he added.
