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More choices in Mother Tongue language courses for pre-school teachers

SINGAPORE — Mother Tongue language teachers in pre-schools who are looking to sharpen their skills may now choose from among 14 new Mother Tongue language modular courses introduced under the Professional Development Programme (PDP) run by the Early Childhood Development Agency.

Ms Nurulhuda Binte Rahmat, 29, teacher at My First Skool (Haig Road), conducts a silk screen printing session on Sept 9, 2016, one of the projects done as part of a Professional Development Programme (PDP) by the Early Childhood Development Agency. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

Ms Nurulhuda Binte Rahmat, 29, teacher at My First Skool (Haig Road), conducts a silk screen printing session on Sept 9, 2016, one of the projects done as part of a Professional Development Programme (PDP) by the Early Childhood Development Agency. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

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SINGAPORE — Mother Tongue language teachers in pre-schools who are looking to sharpen their skills may now choose from among 14 new Mother Tongue language modular courses introduced under the Professional Development Programme (PDP) run by the Early Childhood Development Agency.

The 18-hour courses, offered at SIM University, include Chinese contemporary literature, fundamentals of Chinese-English translation, introduction to Malay linguistics, and modern Tamil language.

A 60-hour course on the fundamentals of early years visual arts education will be also offered at Temasek Polytechnic, bringing the total number of current courses under the programme to 22.

First announced in September last year, the PDP is a 180-hour structured programme over three years that allows teachers to develop their skills through projects and module courses in teaching and leadership at various institutes of higher learning.

The teachers are nominated by their employers to take part in the programme.

Nominations for the second intake opened on Friday (Sept 9) and will close on Nov 11. There were 138 teachers in the first batch earlier this year.

Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin said on Friday during his visit to My First Skool pre-school on Haig Road: “The strengthening of Mother Tongue is important because we know the foundation years, particularly for language, is key”.

Even though the programme is still in its “nascent years”, Mr Tan said that feedback has been positive so far. He hopes that more teachers and pre-schools will step forward to take part in it and the ministry is looking to increase the number of courses over time, to give teachers more choices so that they may look at strengthening their competencies in different areas.

He noted that there were some challenges that pre-schools faced in having to set aside time for teachers to take up courses. “Some feel that having the teachers go away for 180 hours for three years is a big commitment. It is, but the payoffs are quite tremendous because the teachers (go) back with a newer set of competencies,” Mr Tan said.

English pre-school teacher and PDP participant Nurulhuda Rahmat, 29, found that the new modules offered interesting choices. “For example, learning about phonics through the Malay language. As an English teacher, I can (see how) how children learn phonics in English and in Malay, so it would help me in understanding children’s development in literacy, and to develop ideas and craft the lesson to support their learning,” she said. She added that these courses would help support Mother Tongue language teachers in developing their understanding of languages for bilingual students.

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