SINGAPORE — In a bid to ease the transition to primary school for pre-schoolers attending its kindergartens, the Ministry of Education (MOE) tasked the team that designed its Lower Primary curriculum to develop its kindergarten curriculum.

Apart from using content that features people and scenes familiar to children in Singapore, the team also placed a strong emphasis on bilingualism: Books in English and Mother Tongue share similar topics in order to help children see the connection between them.

Said Dr Elizabeth Pang, MOE’s Programme Director of Literacy Development: “We were very mindful that we need to facilitate the transition to Primary 1 and to ease the burden of the Primary 1 teachers when they have children with varying kinds of backgrounds.

“So, when we designed the K1 and K2 curriculum, we wanted to build the foundational skills of the children — not to bring down the demands of Primary 1 — but to build a very strong foundation in listening, speaking, early reading skills, so that the children, when they get to Primary 1, will find that it is very manageable.”

The first batch of K1 students moving on to K2 will also get chances to learn about what primary school life will be like, said Dr Pang.

As most of the MOE kindergartens are located in primary schools, there are opportunities for the two to collaborate on programmes or activities, she added.

The ministry’s specialists noted that they are constantly reviewing the curriculum and collecting feedback from teachers.

Noting that it was the first time the ministry has developed a kindergarten curriculum, Ms Leong Pik San, MOE’s Senior Specialist with the Pre-School Education Branch, said specialists “work very closely with the teachers and the centre heads who have experience in the pre-school sector as well”.

“We draw on their experience and their ideas; we involve them in the brainstorming, in giving input for the activities and field-testing the activities,” she said.

“As they are implementing it now, they can also give us suggestions — how they can modify it or how they can do even better — and we will consider the suggestions and see how we can review and refine our resources.”

One tweak in the pipeline, said Ms Leong, is increasing the number of activities and time for teachers and children to have discussions on certain topics.

The MOE previously said it will set up 15 kindergartens by 2016.

It started its first five kindergartens this year and will add another five centres with daycare facilities next year.

Registration for next year’s places will be held tomorrow and on Saturday. CHANNEL NEWSASIA