Guidelines for Early Childhood Educators on Outdoor Learning

6 Ms Carrie Tan asked Minister for Social and Family Development (a) since the publication of the national guide for early childhood educators on Outdoor Learning by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) in September 2019, whether the Ministry has taken stock of how many preschools are implementing the recommendations in the guide; (b) if so, what is the progress; (c) what are the challenges encountered by preschool operators incorporating more outdoor time in their curriculum; and (d) how is the Ministry helping to address these challenges.

The Minister of State for Social and Family Development (Ms Sun Xueling) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Outdoor learning is a critical part of the holistic learning and the development of young children. Our national curriculum frameworks require all preschools to incorporate outdoor learning as part of their curriculum. We have increased the emphasis of outdoor learning in our refreshed curriculum frameworks introduced in 2022 and 2023 so that preschools will plan for children’s outdoor learning experiences across various domains, for example, numeracy, language and literacy, instead of only focusing on physical development. In addition, all preschools are required to incorporate gross motor activities into their curriculum, of which a specified amount must be done outdoors.

The national guide on outdoor learning was developed to provide educators with guiding principles and practical suggestions to enhance children’s learning in the outdoors. As the guide was meant to be a resource for educators, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) did not mandate the preschools to implement its recommendations nor track its implementation. Instead, the recommendations were weaved into ECDA’s Outdoor Learning Training Programme for preschools while ideas on outdoor learning were shared on an online repository.

With the support of the Temasek Foundation, trained educators also held peer sharing sessions. Nearly 2,500 educators and centre leaders have participated in the training courses and peer sharing sessions to date. Many of them have indicated the training courses contributed to their increased confidence in planning and implementing outdoor learning experiences for children. Sir, 174 preschools have also received funds to support the implementation of their outdoor learning improvement plans.

Challenges faced by preschools in implementing outdoor learning activities include child safety and management in outdoor spaces as well as dedicating time for outdoor activities in the timetable. Through the training courses and peer sharing sessions, educators learnt how to overcome these challenges. For example, educators learnt practical strategies to enhance child safety and management outdoors and gained ideas to creatively use existing time and space for outdoor learning.

Another challenge faced is that some preschools may not have safe and accessible spaces for outdoor learning. Since 2017, ECDA has updated design specifications to ensure new preschools prebuilt in Housing and Development Board (HDB) Build-To-Order (BTO) estates have direct and safe access to outdoor spaces.

Beyond preschools' enhanced learning outdoors, families have the most important role in ensuring their children spend time outdoors playing and learning. With concerted efforts from all stakeholders, we believe that outdoor learning will become an integral part of our children’s everyday life and development.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Ms Carrie Tan.

Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the Minister of State for her answer. I am quite heartened to know that the Ministry is taking a rather capacity building-based approach and involving the Temasek Foundation to advance this course to ensure more outdoor learning for children.

I can imagine that, given the challenges, some of that might come from resistance from parents, especially on the one about safety. I can also imagine that this puts additional pressure on the preschool educators who might feel uncomfortable or that they are at risk if parents come and give feedback or complain about the children getting hurt while playing outdoors. So, does the Ministry plan to form any kind of educational outreach or dialogues with parents to also educate parents on the benefits of outdoor curriculum so that they can be an equal partner and stakeholder in this effort?

Secondly, the constraint around the outdoor spaces available for the preschools, will the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) be working with the Ministry of National Development (MND) to look into the way we are planning our neighbourhoods to ensure that more space is catered for outdoor spaces? And I would like to be more specific about this request because outdoor spaces can mean highly manicured and curated gardens with bonsai and flowers and all that versus a naturalistic, very natural environment where children can learn the principles of nature and the ecosystem at work.

Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member for her two clarifications. Indeed, parents are very important stakeholders in this process. Our various preschools frequently update parents about the kind of activities that are happening in preschools. For many Members in Parliament today who have young children, you may have come across pictures that your preschool send you with the children having activities outdoors. So, that is one way in which the preschools actively engage parents to let their parents know what the children are doing outdoors and to also assure the parents that safety considerations and many other forms of protective measures are being undertaken to help and support their children.

There are also regular meetings between teachers and parents, so that the parents know what is happening in the preschool and also to be updated on the curriculum and what is the developmental guidance that the teachers are providing and have been sharing with the parents, so that parents are kept up-to-date and can work with the teachers on this learning journey for their children.

On the second part of your question, indeed, we are always happy to work with MND. I would just like to add that when it comes to incorporating natural gardens, community gardens, we will need to work with our Town Councils and we will need to work with Residents' Networks (RNs), especially when the estate is already built up and the preschools are already in the community. I have mentioned in my reply that when it comes to pre-built facilities, ECDA will work with MND to make sure that there is a safe access to play areas. But where the preschools are already in a community, then we will have to work with the Town Councils as well as the RNs, to see what could be incorporated into existing infrastructure, to create those natural playgrounds for children.