MOE, MCYS to offer scholarships, bursaries to attract educators for pre-school sector

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports will offer up to 1,400 scholarships, bursaries and awards over the next three years to attract new entrants to the pre-school sector and to provide upgrading opportunities for existing educators.

The S$21-million initiative to grow a pool of well-qualified pre-school educators comes as the MOE doubles its investment in the sector to S$290 million over the next five years, from the preceding period, Minister of State (Education) Masagos Zulkifli said yesterday.

As of January, 86 per cent of kindergarten teachers and 70 per cent of childcare teachers have attained the Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education-Teaching or are undergoing the training.

Mr Masagos said the MOE is on track to meet its 2013 target of getting pre-schools to have at least 75 per cent of their teachers meet the minimum qualification requirements set in 2009, which includes five O-Level passes and a B4 in English language.

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