5 October 2018
three-year NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
TO PROFILE THE EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSION; ENHANCED TRAINING AND SUPPORT FOR MOTHER
TONGUE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN PRESCHOOLS
1.
New
initiatives to raise the profile of early childhood educators and enhance the
training and support for Mother Tongue Language (MTL) teaching in preschools were
announced today by the Minister for Social and Family Development (MSF), Mr
Desmond Lee, at the Early Childhood Conference 2018.
2.
These
initiatives build on efforts to transform the early childhood sector,
strengthen the career prospects of its educators and enhance the provision of MTL
teaching, as outlined at the 2018 MSF Committee of Supply debates.
NATIONAL
CAMPAIGN FOR THE EARLY CHILDHOOD SECTOR
3.
The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) will embark on a
three-year national campaign to raise public awareness and understanding of the
early childhood profession. With the tagline “Shape Our Tomorrow”, the campaign
will feature the important work of early childhood educators and highlight their
invaluable role in building strong foundations for life and, in
turn, shaping the future of our nation. It will leverage both social media and traditional media
platforms such as television and MRT stations to reach out to the general
public.
4.
This is part of our sustained efforts to foster greater respect
for and recognition of our early childhood educators. More recent initiatives
include ECDA’s provision of additional closure period for child care centres so
as to support Teachers’ Day, and the ECDA Awards for Excellence in Early
Childhood Development for educarers, teachers and leaders.
ENHANCED
TRAINING AND SUPPORT FOR MOTHER TONGUE LANGUAGES
New
Malay and Tamil Language specialised certificate courses
5.
To better
equip educators in providing young children with a good foundation in MTL and
support the expanded provision of MTL exposure in preschools, ECDA and the
National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC) will introduce a new specialised Certificate in Preschool
Mother Tongue Language Teaching. It aims to enhance early childhood
educators’ spoken MTL skills and their knowledge about related culture and
heritage while equipping them with language-specific pedagogical skills and creative
strategies to nurture in our young children a lifelong interest in Mother
Tongue learning. It will also be delivered in a part-time format to cater to in-service
teachers. For a start, this course will be available in Malay Language and
Tamil Language in 2019. NIEC will share more details on the courses.
6.
To encourage
in-service early childhood educators to teach MTL and deepen their expertise in
MTL teaching, a training bonus of $2,000
will be provided to those who are deployed to teach MTL and successfully
complete the certificate course over the next two years. In addition, those who
take up this certificate course can subsequently sign up for the Professional Development
Programme (PDP) for Teachers or Educarers, and the course can count towards
fulfilling part of the PDP training hours’ requirement.
Mother
Tongue Language resources for the Early Years
7.
To
better support early childhood educators specialising in Mother Tongue
Languages, ECDA will be collaborating with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and
early childhood practitioners to develop MTL
resources for children aged 3 and 4 (Nursery 1 and 2), in Chinese, Malay and
Tamil Languages. These could include learning materials such as books,
games and teaching guides which are tailored for our local context. This will
complement the existing MTL teaching resources available for 5 and 6 year-olds,
which are part of the Nurturing Early Learners framework developed by MOE.
8.
The
Early Years MTL resources will be piloted at selected preschools in 2019. This will
be extended to other preschools in 2020.
9.
ECDA
has set aside up to $3 million over the next two years to support the MTL
training bonus and the development of the Early Years MTL resources.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE EARLY CHILDHOOD SECTOR
The national campaign for the early childhood sector
aims to raise public’s awareness of the:
1.
Important
role that early childhood educators play in a child’s development in the early years;
2.
Professionalism
of early childhood educators; and
3.
Career
and development opportunities in the early childhood sector.
There will be greater coverage of the important work
that early childhood educators do, via the major media and advertising
platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, television or MRT stations. Those who are
interested to join the sector can also look forward to more networking and
recruitment efforts to facilitate their entry to the early childhood sector.
More information on career and development
opportunities in the early childhood sector can be found on www.ecda.gov.sg/shapeourtomorrow.
ENHANCED TRAINING AND SUPPORT FOR TEACHING MOTHER
TONGUE LANGUAGES
Certificate
in Preschool Mother Tongue Language Teaching (CPMTL) courses
1.
How
is the new MTL certificate course different from the existing training for MTL
teachers? Is it compulsory?
The
certificate is targeted at in-service teachers who wish to enhance their MTL
skills and knowledge of related culture and heritage, as well as be better
equipped with pedagogies to enable children to enjoy learning the language.
The
certificate adopts a more holistic approach than other short courses which
might be more for enrichment purposes. The certificate focuses on honing
teachers’ MTL skills, and provides strategies to make learning of the Mother
Tongue Languages fun and interesting for young children. Teachers learn how to
use local folklore, the arts and heritage to help children connect with the
language, and how to make the language come alive through dramatisation using
children’s literature.
The
course is not compulsory. However, all Malay and Tamil Language teachers are
encouraged to sign up for the certificate to deepen their MTL teaching
competencies, and support our collective effort to provide early exposure to
and foster a love for MTL in our children during their preschool years.
2.
The
new certificate course will be launched in Malay Language and Tamil Language in
2019. Will there be a certificate course in Chinese Language? When will it be
launched?
The
certificates support the expansion of provision of Malay or Tamil Language
education by Anchor Operator preschools from 200 to 350 centres by 2022, and
also the increase in number of MOE Kindergartens, which offer all three Mother
Tongue Languages, to 50 centres by 2023.
Currently,
there are existing pre-service (Continuing Education and Training [CET] and Pre-Employment
Training [PET]) courses to train Chinese Language preschool teachers, and the
sector faces a greater need for Malay and Tamil Language preschool teachers. NIEC
will work with ECDA and industry partners to consider a similar certificate
course to support Chinese Language teaching.
3.
Will
the training be paid for and by whom?
Singapore
Citizens and Permanent Residents who take up the MTL certificate course will be
eligible for MOE subsidies, which will cover a substantial portion of fees.
MTL
training bonus
4.
Who is eligible for the bonus? Will teachers in all
three MTLs be eligible for it?
All
ECDA-certified teachers, with their EC diploma or certificate training
conducted in English, and are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents,
are eligible for the training bonus. They will need to take up MTL
teaching in a preschool and complete the certificate course over the next two
years to receive the MTL training bonus. The bonus is currently provided
to support the ramp up of provision of Malay and Tamil Languages in the
preschool sector. NIEC will work with ECDA and industry partners to
consider a similar certificate course to support Chinese Language
teaching, and accordingly, the eligibility of Chinese Language teachers
for the MTL training bonus.
5.
How
will the MTL certificate course count towards fulfilling the Professional
Development Programme requirements? Will they receive the MTL training bonus,
on top of the PDP allowance?
ECDA-certified
teachers who take up the certificate course can join the PDP for
Teachers and Educarers, if they meet the eligibility criteria. They may opt to
count the MTL certificate course towards fulfilling part of the programme
requirement of 180 hours of professional development. If they do so, they will
receive the full PDP cash award ($12,000 over three years upon completion of
PDP and service milestones) and not the MTL training bonus.
6.
Why
is the bonus instituted for only two years?
The
MTL training bonus is an initial bonus given to encourage more early childhood educators
who are interested to explore MTL teaching to take up the training and become
MTL teachers; it supports the sector’s needs for quality MTL teaching. ECDA
will review the take up rate of the MTL certificate course along with the bonus
in 2020.
MTL
Early Years resources
7.
Are
there MTL resources for 0 – 2 years old?
Our
current focus is on MTL provision at the kindergarten and nursery ages. Once we
have developed resources in all three MTLs for children aged 3 – 6 years old,
ECDA will study the sector’s needs for MTL resources for younger age groups. Preschools
can continue to take guidance from the Early Years Development Framework (EYDF)
to provide developmentally appropriate and holistic learning experiences for
infants and toddlers.