The insight I've gained about issues from exploring the UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education is what is happening now in the New York State and our union is fighting the changes from public schools to charter schools or into a non-public actor just like Singapore:
In Singapore, Preschool and Child Care Centres - the two main early childhood services - are run by individuals, communities, NGO or enterprises.
The government monitors and finances the non - public services, but does not involve itself in delivery, that is, the management and operation of services. There are no public early childhood services in the country.
Why did the government give up ownership?
The running of Child Care Centres as public establishments was considered costly. Making a non-public actor responsible for the management and operation of services, with the government providing financial support, was considered a better option.
Hi Tamarah,
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your posting, and as usual, always learning new things from my colleagues. What I have gathered, is that the government in that country is more concerned about money, rather than its future human resources. In my country, many of the preschools and child care centres are privately owned(by individuals, churches etc.). However, these days when my government is constructing primary schools, it is now catering for preK students. Teachers in this field have to hold at least a Bachelor Degree to work in this field. Teachers in the privately owned schools do have some training, but it's below the Bachelor's level. Recently, a team of officials from the division of early childhood education, Ministry of Education visited all the preschools and child care centres, after which they commented on their
observation, as well as gave ideas as to how they can improve their settings and performance.
Joanne.
I read the same article on the UNESCO website.
ReplyDeleteTo add on to Joanne's thoughts, in the US we have States that are developing public PreK systems and there are people who worry about the competition to the local sector. I believe we can develop a system that requires high quality early childhood programs delivered in various ways. This can only happen when the general public sees access to affordable early care and education as a right.
Betsy
It is very interesting to learn about different cultures in reference to early education and how it is relates to that of the U.S. or other countries. It is nice to know that the Signapore government finances education however it is not nice to know that they do not monitor the funds so it could be that the funds are not being properly used.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing information on Singapore and other countries. Not only is is it informative but helps in comparison when looking at what we can do in the United States to improve our systems.
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