Percentage of Primary 1 Students Who Had Not Completed Preschool Education

1 Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Education what is the current percentage of children who enter Primary 1 without completing at least three years of preschool (including nursery, kindergarten 1 and kindergarten 2).

The Minister of State for Education (Ms Sun Xueling) (for the Minister for Education): For the cohort of Singaporean children who entered Primary 1 in 2019, about nine in 10 were enrolled in preschools from age four onwards and would have had at least three years in preschool. At least 99% would have had some preschool experience before starting Primary 1.

Mr Speaker: Dr Wan Rizal.

Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for the quick reply. I would like to ask, of this percentage of children – although it is just one in 10 – were there any studies done to see or to track their progress: one, over their academic progression or performance; and two, over their physical or health literacy across their Primary and Secondary school days.

If there were studies made, would the Minister of State be able to share with us the data, and if there were no studies, would one be conducted in the future?

Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member for his questions. We currently do not track the outcomes of children who did not attend preschool and into Primary school and beyond. This is something we can look into.

But I would like to add several other interventions that we are doing. Firstly, we recognise the importance of preschool education in the early years for a child's development, in particular, for those who come from less advantaged backgrounds. MSF and ECDA have thus been working very hard to ensure the provision of accessible, affordable as well as quality preschool services. This is to ensure that every child would have a good start in life.

We also follow up with proactive outreach and targeted assistance to facilitate the enrolment of those children from less advantaged backgrounds. For instance, via ECDA's Preschool Outreach Programme, we work actively with the community to reach out to families of Singaporean children aged three years and above who are not attending preschool. Our community outreach partners will conduct house visits and work closely with the families to facilitate their child's enrolment into preschool. This can also take the form of helping them with registration forms and seeing what other impediments they may face.

We are also expanding the KidSTART programme, which specifically supports children in the areas that the Member mentioned – health, nutritional needs. We likewise work with the families through house visits, get to know the families better, get to know the children better, to see how we can support them to ensure that there is regular attendance at preschool.

One other thing that I wanted to mention is that we also have another gateway at Primary 1 are screened in the first term to see if they need additional help through the Learning Support Programme or Learning Support for Mathematics.

Those are the various interventions we put in place to ensure that children have access to quality preschool, that is accessible and affordable. For children who may not have had regular attendance in preschool, when they come to Primary 1, we still have interventions to make sure that they do not lag behind.

Mr Speaker: Miss Cheng Li Hui.

Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines): I have two supplementary questions. Will MOE consider making preschool part of compulsory education and also, to increase the KiFAS minimum requirement of one-day attendance per month to qualify for the subsidy, which is the current status? We need to ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds attend preschool more regularly.

Ms Sun Xueling: I thank the Member for her questions. As I had shared earlier, we recognise the importance of the preschool years in a child's development, particularly for children from less advantaged backgrounds. But we also recognise that it is important to preserve some parental choice because they may also have some views on how they would like to educate children in the early years. Some of them may feel that there is some advantage in some forms of home-schooling, for instance. So, rather than a broad policy of compulsory education in the preschool years, what we have strived to do is to ensure that there is accessible, affordable and quality preschool, so that for any family who has a child and wants to put the child through preschool, there are options available for them.

In my earlier answer to Member Dr Wan Rizal, I have shared various interventions – be it through KidSTART or through the outreach programmes that we have where we build connectivity with families to enable them and support them in sending their children to preschool.

On the second question from the Member, the Ministry will take a look at the suggestion that she made.