以前瞻性视角全面规划学前教育—专访幼儿培育署署长李东瑾

A Master Plan for the Early Childhood Education Sector

去年8月的国庆群众大会上，李显龙总理强调学前教育的重要性，承诺政府将投入可观的资源发展学前教育，并宣布将成立一个法定机构来专责发展学前教育事务。
他说：“我们的目标是让所有孩子都在同一个起步点开跑。”高效率的新加坡政府，即在今年3月27日宣布设立
“幼儿培育署”，负责发展新加坡六岁以下儿童的托管和学前教育事务。这个新成立的法定机构，主要职责涵盖五大范围：通过监督管制条例和认证资格，确保幼儿托管和教育素质；协调幼儿教师的培训工作并提供所需资源；规划幼儿教育基础设施和人力需求；为中低收入家庭提供津贴，以确保他们有能力让孩子接受幼儿教育，并把幼儿教育的学费维持在人人能负担得起的水平；以及主导公共教育以提高家长对幼儿发展的认知。

At the National Day Rally in August last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stressed the importance of early childhood education, and promised that the government will both invest a significant pool of resources into developing the early childhood sector, and establish a statutory board which will be responsible for all services pertaining to early childhood.
“Our goal is to let every child have the same opportunities from the start,” said Mr Lee.
On 27 March, the government established the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), which will serve as the regulatory and developmental authority for the early childhood sector in Singapore, overseeing all aspects of children’s development below the age of seven, across both kindergartens and childcare centres. ECDA has five key areas of responsibility, which are: to oversee measures to raise quality standards of early childhood programmes, including regulation, quality assurance, and the provision of early childhood development resources; to facilitate the training and continuing professional development of early childhood professionals; to act as the master planner for infrastructure and manpower resources to support the early childhood sector; to provide subsidies and grants to keep quality pre-school programmes affordable, especially for low and middle income families; and to conduct public education and outreach to raise parents’ awareness and support for their children’s development.