Recruiting More Preschool Teachers by 2020

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what are the specific steps that the Government is taking to recruit 3,000 preschool teachers by 2020; and (b) considering that less than 1% of preschool educators are men, whether there are plans put in place to recruit more men into this sector.

Mr Speaker, the Government has been investing in the early childhood sector to provide families with access to affordable and quality preschool. To support the expansion of the preschool sector, we have put in place measures to attract more people, both men and women, to join the sector. At present, there are around 18,000 preschool educators in the sector. We will closely monitor our efforts to grow the sector as we aim to meet our targets.

To attract more post-Secondary students, the newly established National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC) plans to admit about 700 students to their new Diploma in Early Childhood Development and Education programme for Academic Year 2019, which is double the intake in 2015. The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) also offers training awards to encourage students to pursue Early Childhood courses at the NIEC and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). These awards provide students with full sponsorship of their course fees, learning resource grants, professional development grant, monthly study allowances and professional networking opportunities, and that are pre-employment efforts. Now, I move on to mid-career transitions.

To attract more mid-career entrants, we have rolled out the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Preschool Teachers and the Place-and-Train Programme (PnT) for Educarers. People who are looking to switch careers or re-enter the workforce can apply for these programmes, and can earn a salary while undergoing a mix of on-the-job coaching and classroom-based teaching or training. To facilitate their entry to the sector, the Government provides subsidies for the training courses and salaries. I move on to skills pathways.

To provide greater clarity on the career pathways and opportunities for Early Childhood professionals, ECDA, with industry partners, had introduced the Skills Framework for the Early Childhood Sector. This is supported by moves to retain and support in-service professionals to deepen their skill competencies, such as Professional Development Programmes (PDPs) and the ECDA Fellows Programme. ECDA has also been working with Anchor Operators to enhance the career prospects for their educators by creating 1,000 more senior professional positions by 2022.

Apart from manpower programmes, we have been working with industry partners to streamline work processes and reduce educators' administrative workload under the Industry Transformation Map (ITM). More recently, ECDA rolled out a National Campaign for the Early Childhood Sector to create greater awareness of the sector and career opportunities, and to foster greater respect and recognition of the profession.

Through these efforts, we have seen more people, including men, who are interested to join the sector today. Over the last five years, the intake of mid-career entrants enrolled in professional early childhood certificate or diploma courses have increased by more than 70%. The intake sizes of Pre-employment Training students for similar courses have also increased by two times, with the proportion of men enrolled in the diploma courses doubling.

In tandem with the expansion of the sector, salaries for early childhood professionals have been rising steadily. Based on ECDA's 2016 survey, basic salaries for educarers with a professional Certificate range from about $1,800 to $2,100 per month, salaries for teachers with a professional teaching Diploma range from $2,200 to $3,000, and salaries for principals with a professional leadership Diploma range from $3,100 to $6,000. These salaries have increased by about 15% since the previous survey in 2013, outpacing that of the general market for similar job sizes which grew by about 8% over the same period. Also, based on the 2017 Polytechnic Graduate Employment Survey, the starting salaries of full-time early childhood Diploma fresh graduates have increased by about 20% to $2,300 since 2013. ECDA expects salary growth for early childhood educators to continue to outpace that of the general market.

ECDA will continue to work with NIEC and other partners to create more progression opportunities and areas of specialisation, such as in Mother Tongue Language teaching, Learning Support and Early Intervention, and Outdoor Learning. Some of these areas, such as Outdoor Learning, may provide scope to attract more men to the sector, which at this point in time is a very low proportion.

Together with its partners, ECDA will press on to uplift the early childhood profession and ensure that the preschool sector provides rewarding and meaningful careers.

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. Just one supplementary question. Could the Minister please share, what are the challenges that the Ministry have faced in trying to increase recruitment in this area as a whole?

There are whole range of factors which we have assessed that may make it competitive to bring in more people into the early childhood sector. One of them, of course, is more qualitative – it is people's perception of what an early childhood sector job entails. And there are certain common misconceptions that an early childhood educator is a nanny or a caregiver, rather than a teacher, a person who guides and grows a child in the early years of their development. So, to address that, we have launched, last year, a national campaign. Having consulted many members of the profession about what kinds of misperceptions people may have and testing with them to see whether it resonates with them. Some of the messages, videos and profiles that have gone out seek to address people's minds, for both those who are considering entering the sector, and of course, the parents who influence and guide their children on what kinds of jobs to aspire towards, to have a more accurate view on the importance of early childhood.

Science and data have shown that good early childhood education impacts not just the cognitive development of the child, but the holistic development of children – ages zero to three, zero to six, these are very important ages, and we want to grow the sector.

We attract most of our entrants through career conversion. Many people, after working in various sectors, decide that they want to enter the sector. And we find that that is also a very stable group of people. In fact, three quarters of those joining the sector becoming educators in the preschool sector are mid-career entrants, with the remaining one quarter coming from the Pre-employment Training sector. And the PCP and Place and Train have been very helpful in that regard. One quarter of those who are mid-career entrants come under the Place and Train and PCP.

So, mindset is one, creating pathways is another to attract people into the sector.

The Member also asked about men, whether we are able to attract more men so that we grow the pool of potential applicants into the sector. And I have spoken to senior educators because I wanted to understand this phenomenon when I joined the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). You know there are very, very few men who are preschool teachers. In fact, I just met one last night at some event. One preschool teacher who was a man and the rest were women. When I speak to preschool senior educators, they talk about cultural factors. They say that firstly, there is a mindset amongst people that the preschool sector is more suited to women. Women are very good carers and educators, but I think men can also equally play a role in that regard. But there is this mindset.

A second belief, believe it or not, some of the senior educators told me that some parents are not comfortable with male teachers, for example, showering children and many preschools across the sector decide to allow only women to shower children. And of course, all these play a part in the cultural mindset.

So, a whole range of factors, but as I have given in my comprehensive reply, we are tackling them: cultural mindset, misconceptions, salaries, progression pathways, mid-career pipelines, specialisations, senior positions and pathways that assure people that they can grow in the sector by picking up certain skills. So, we continue in this regard, and we hope to achieve our targets as stated.