Early Childhood Development Centres Bill
The Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDC) Bill was passed in Parliament on 28 February 2017.
The ECDC Bill aims to harmonise and ensure consistent standards across pre-schools. With the new Bill, ECDA intends to:
- Signal the national importance of quality early childhood development
- Ensure holistic care and education for every child
A new regulatory framework for pre-schools will be introduced. The framework aims to protect the safety, well-being and welfare of children in pre-schools and promote the quality, and continuous improvement in the quality of pre-school services.
WHO BENEFITS
- FOR PARENTS: Greater peace of mind, with greater assurance of quality across all pre-schools
- FOR TEACHERS: Greater professional standing, with streamlined registration requirements across the sector
- FOR OPERATORS: Clearer and more harmonised set of requirements, whether for child care centres or kindergartens
KEY PROVISIONS
- Higher and more consistent standards
- All centres to be licensed
- All staff working in pre-schools to be approved
- Longer licence tenure of up to 3 years for better centres
Enhanced regulatory measures
- Greater investigative powers to manage more complex cases
- More graduated enforcement approach for breaches
- Greater control on centre closure to minimise impact of service disruption
Click to expand (5.9MB).
Remember, we all play important roles in ensuring quality early childhood education for our children.
THE STAR POLISHER - LEAH BECKS
I have a great job in the universe of occupations.
What do I do? I'm a "star polisher".
It's a very important job.
If you want to know how important, just go out at night and look at the stars
twinkling and sparkling.
You see, I'm a teacher.
The stars are the children in my class.
My job is to take them in - in whatever shape they come - and shine and buff them
and send them out to take their places
as bright little twinkling
beacons in the sky.
They come in my room in all shapes and sizes.
Sometimes they're bent, tarnished, dirty, crinkly, and broken.
Some stars are cuddly, soft, and sweet.
Some stars are prickly and thorny.
As I buff, polish, train and teach my little stars,
I tell them that the world cannot do without them.
I tell them they can do anything they set their minds to do.
I tell them they can be the brightest, shiniest stars
in the sky
and the world will be a better place because of them.
Each night as I look at the sky, I'm reminded of my
Very important job and awesome responsibility.
I go and get my soft buffing cloth
and my
bottle of polish in preparation for tomorrow
and for my class of little stars.
MORE ABOUT THE ECDC BILL
Click the links below to learn more about the ECDC Bill:
- Parliament: Higher Standards for Childcare Centres and Kindergartens under New Law -
The Straits Times, 28 February 2017
- New Laws to Ensure Higher Standards for Childcare Centres, Kindergartens - TODAY, 1 March 2017
- Higher Standards for Childcare Centres, Kindergartens - The New Paper, 1 March 2017
- 明年实施托儿所托儿园统一受幼教中心法管制 - 联合早报, 1 Mar 2017
- Parlimen: Piawaian lebih tinggi bagi tajaka dan tadika di bawah akta baru - Berita Harian, 28 February 2017
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