A Balancing Act

When it comes to educating or schooling the very young children, parents are usually at a dilemma on whether to enrol them in a pre-school that leans on academic skill or one that is play-based. Often times parents still have the misconception that they need to start their young children as soon as possible to read, write and be able to count. They then neglect the young child's need to develop relationally, emotionally, conceptually, etc... when all these are just as necessary as reading, writing and counting.




In Singapore pre-schools that emphasise on academics seem to be popular with parents. They usually have a long waiting line of children at their doorstep. It is indeed a balancing act that parents play each time they have a pre-school child in the family.

Today, the Education Minister announced that the Ministry of Education will not nationalise the pre-school education simply because they want to allow many different ways to educating the pre-school child. There certainly are varied ways to develop the young child. So let us not get stuck on the academics only when deciding on which pre-school the young child should be enrolled in.