More Mother Tongue Teachers for Preschools

14 Mr Ang Hin Kee asked the Minister for Education (Schools) (a) what are the plans to ramp up the number of local Chinese language teachers for the early childhood education sector; (b) whether the Ministry will consider bursaries, scholarships and study awards to encourage students to take up careers in this sector and to specialise in the teaching of Chinese language to preschoolers; and (c) whether there will be conversion programmes and awards to encourage those strong in the Chinese language to do a mid-career switch.

15 Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Education (Schools) (a) whether there are plans to actively recruit more local Mother Tongue language teachers for the early childhood education sector; and (b) whether the Ministry will work with the Ministry of Manpower to develop conversion programmes and awards for mid-career Singaporeans and PRs to teach Mother Tongue languages at the preschool level.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Education (Schools)): Mr Speaker, Sir, with your permission, can I take Question Nos 14 and 15 together?

Mr Speaker: Please do.

Ms Low Yen Ling: The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) have been working actively to grow the number of local preschool teachers, including mother tongue language (MTL) teachers.

Firstly, we worked with the educational institutions to expand places for training of early childhood professionals. The Early Childhood Diploma intake at the polytechnics has increased significantly by more than 70% from 380 places in 2015 to 675 in 2016. Secondly, since 2016, students who wish to become preschool MTL teachers can pursue specialised MTL tracks in Early Childhood at the polytechnics. Thirdly, we offer numerous training awards to support students in their studies, such as course fee sponsorship, allowance grants and professional development grants, for both the English programme and the specialised MTL tracks.

In addition to all that, to encourage mid-career entrants to join the sector, ECDA, Skills Future Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG) provide support for mid-career entrants who enroll in English or MTL Early Childhood diplomas offered by a range of providers. The support is available in the form of course fee subsidies, in-training allowances and salary grants under the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP), and other place-and-train modes.

Since 2015, all these efforts that I have mentioned have grown the pool of local teachers dedicated to MTL teaching by 35% to about 3,300 today.

In addition, we are also working to raise the profile of MTL teachers in the early childhood sector and to encourage more teachers to specialise in this field. The annual Outstanding Preschool MTL Teacher Award seeks to recognise preschool MTL teachers who have demonstrated passion, innovation and dedication. To date, 63 MTL teachers have received this Award.

Going forward, ECDA will continue to work closely with the new National Institute for Early Childhood Development and other training partners to ensure a sustainable pipeline of quality MTL preschool teachers. Together with the sector, we will also make efforts to provide adequate recognition for MTL and, in fact, all preschool teachers, so that their passion in the profession can be sustained.

Mr Speaker: Mr Ang Hin Kee.

Mr Ang Hin Kee (Ang Mo Kio): I would like to ask if the Ministry or agency finds challenges in attracting MTL early childhood teachers and what are the challenges faced in trying to attract and retain local teachers to enter this particular subject specialisation.

Ms Low Yen Ling: I thank the Member Mr Ang Hin Kee for his supplementary question and his continued support on teaching of MTL. Earlier on, in my reply, I said that in the last two years, the various efforts that we have mounted have increased our pool of local MTL preschool teachers by 35% within two years to the current pool of 3,300 teachers. I also mentioned about our PCP. In the last two years, 2015 and 2016, Mr Ang would be happy to note that the PCP effort has attracted 255 mid-career switches, that is, persons switching into the MTL preschool sector.

We will continue our drive to attract suitable candidates, whether under Pre-Employment Training (PET) or Continuing Education and Training (CET), to join our MTL preschool sector and also then, as new entrants, to join us to put in the effort to nurture them with training and career prospects.

We did a survey on the number of teachers staying or in terms of attrition. We understand that some of the considerations could be that, at the stage of their development, some of these teachers have young kids at home and they need to take a short break from the preschool sector. Some of them leave due to other considerations. MOE and ECDA have developed the Early Childhood Manpower Plan to make the Early Childcare and Education (ECCE) sector a more attractive and rewarding career through a few steps. One, providing more entry pathways and opportunities for competency-based professional development; secondly, to improve the working conditions of our educators through the use of smart solutions; and thirdly, we have worked hard in the last few years to foster greater respect and recognition for our educators.

The Government is very committed to uplift the profession and also strengthen the training and career prospects for our preschool teachers, including MTL teachers.

Mr Speaker: Dr Intan Mokhtar.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the answers. We still see quite a number of foreign MTL preschool teachers in our preschool centres. The concern, really, is about their bilingual abilities, their understanding of local cultures and context, and conversational accents in teaching our children. I do appreciate the efforts that ECDA and MOE have made in trying to recruit more local teachers.

My question is whether there are plans to have conversion programmes for retired MTL teachers from the primary schools or even among our current primary school teachers to teach at the preschool level. The caveat is that, for our current primary school teachers, whether they can retain their level of pay and benefits. In other words, it is more of a secondment for them to teach at the preschool centres.

Ms Low Yen Ling: I thank the Member Dr Intan for her question. Currently, six in 10 MTL teachers in the preschool sector are locals. I mentioned earlier that we will double our efforts to continue to attract local MTL teachers into the sector. Indeed, other than the PCP I had mentioned and the mid-career switchers, retired teachers can potentially be a good source of supply to augment our pool of local MTL teachers.

Having said that, our MTL teachers, whether in primary or secondary schools, if they intend to move into the preschool sector, they will need to top up the relevant training and skillsets. For example, if the teacher was previously teaching in primary school and teaching MTL, what the teacher would probably need to do is to undertake a bridging programme in early childhood education, a brief one, a bridging programme, so that he or she can then ease into the preschool sector to teach MTL.

If a retired teacher was previously teaching non-MTL subjects – Maths, Science or others – then, we will require the retired teacher to undertake a brief bridging programme to cover the early childhood education and also MTL, contextualised for the preschool sector.

We are committed to explore all possible avenues to continue to augment our pool of local MTL teachers.

12.30 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]