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Pre-school education should develop children holistically

We agree with Mr Jake Goh that children’s development in the early years is crucial. (“Ease transition to primary education in Pri 1, not kindergarten”; April 7)

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Loke-Yeo Teck Yong, Director, Education Services Division, Ministry of Education

We agree with Mr Jake Goh that children’s development in the early years is crucial. (“Ease transition to primary education in Pri 1, not kindergarten”; April 7)

Pre-school education should develop children holistically and nurture developmentally appropriate skills and dispositions, such as confidence, social skills and a good foundation in literacy and numeracy.

This is why the programme and resources used in Ministry of Education (MOE) kindergartens are based on the Nurturing Early Learners curriculum developed by educators with experience in early childhood education and curriculum development. These materials will eventually be shared with other pre-schools to facilitate their delivery of holistic education.

Parents should not be overly anxious about preparing their children academically for Primary 1, because what children need at this stage are self-confidence, social skills and foundational literacy and numeracy skills. These are sufficient for children to ease into Pri 1, and schools have measures to help children adapt to formal schooling.

We work closely with pre-school and primary school educators to establish a common understanding about expectations at the end of kindergarten, so that pre-schools focus on nurturing children holistically and primary schools build on the children’s foundation when they enter Pri 1.

The MOE is committed to helping all children build strong foundations for lifelong learning. We will continue to support pre-school centres with suitable kindergarten curriculum resources to enable them to design developmentally appropriate learning experiences, which will, in turn, ease the transition to primary school.

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