Help for childcare teachers through introduction of Para-Educators and Para-Educarers

New scheme will enable childcare centres to hire teaching assistants
By Janice Tai, The Straits Times, 28 Oct 2011

KINDERGARTEN teacher Norhaidah Nasir found herself struggling to manage her class of 22 young children when her childcare centre switched to small-group learning some years ago.

'I would focus on one group at a time and before you knew it, the other group would start to fight and get restless,' said the 29-year-old teacher from Just Kids Learning Place. 'The experience was quite overwhelming.'

Teachers like her will soon get help under a new scheme announced by Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Halimah Yacob yesterday.

The new scheme allows childcare centres to hire assistants who can help to prepare and supervise classroom activities as well as look after the children and do administrative work.

Funding will be provided to the centres to train these assistants.

Those who work with children aged 18 months to four years old will be known as para-educarers, while those who work with children aged five to six will be called para-educators.

With these extra pairs of hands, teachers will be able to devote more attention to the children under their charge.

Madam Halimah, who toured Just Kids Learning Place childcare centre in Bukit Batok, noted that the quality of inter-action between the staff and the children is critical, and much depends on the amount of staff interaction time with the children.

The scheme will potentially benefit more than 70,000 children who are enrolled in 939 childcare centres here.

Some childcare centres already hire assistants, but there are no fixed training requirements for them.

Under the new scheme, para-edu-carers must attend a 180-hour course, while para-educators must go through 800 hours of training.

With the boost in manpower, centres can also expand their class size by up to 11/2 times, which will help meet growing demand for childcare services.

Under the existing staff-child ratios set by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, a teacher can oversee up to eight children in a playgroup, which is meant for those aged between 18 and 30 months. With the help of an assistant, the playgroup can now take up to 12 children.

The revised staff-child ratios will take effect from Jan 1 next year.

About 60 per cent of the childcare centres here will be able to take in more children with the help of these assistants, said Madam Halimah.

The long waiting time to get their children into their preferred childcare centre has been a perennial bugbear among parents.

The average waiting time to secure a place at childcare centres, especially more popular ones, can be up to one year.

Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing said recently that the ministry will expand the number of childcare centres, and invest more resources in training childcare professionals.

The new scheme will also help boost the pool of manpower in a fast burgeoning sector because these assistants can 'graduate' to become teachers after going through more training and getting the required certification.

Currently, applicants must have a minimum of O-level certification to qualify as a kindergarten teacher.

But there is no such requirement for those who want to work as assistants. This will open the door for more to join the sector.

Ms Katherine Thian, 48, who now works as an assistant in a Kindergarten 2 class, is already looking forward to signing up for this new scheme.

'With the training, I get to learn more and I am excited that I will be given a more instrumental role to play in shaping the development of the children,' she said.

Primary school teacher Tang Chee Weng, 35, who has a daughter in Nursery 2, feels such a scheme will benefit young children. 'It is good the children are getting more attention when they are young so they will not fall behind when they enter primary school.'