I REFER to the letter "Pay More To Qualified Preschool Teachers" published in The Straits Times on Oct 27.

The Association of Private Childcare Organisations (Apco) was formed this year with the objective of bringing all private childcare organisations together and implementing initiatives like training and re-training, job re-design and even branding, to raise the quality of private childcare organisations to the next level.

One of the first steps is the training of qualified preschool teachers in areas beyond the core preschool curriculum. Equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills to teach children enrichment subjects such as music, speech and drama, computer literacy, and so on, would eventually enable them to effectively implement their own in-house enrichment programmes.

This is seen as a constructive and beneficial step, not only for teachers themselves, but also for the families they serve, and most importantly, for the children.

Teachers will benefit from this job re-design as it will come with a significant pay increase. In addition to that, they will be equipped with added skills and knowledge in the training process, which in the long term is highly advantageous as it contributes to their personal and professional development. Employability of an individual who is trained in early childhood, as well as an enrichment subject, increases exponentially.

Parents can look forward to spending more quality time with their children, with the lessened burden of having to source externally for enrichment courses for their children to participate in. They would also have the added confidence that the programmes would be taught by educators trained in early childhood. With the understanding and experience in dealing with children, these educators would be better able to implement quality enrichment programmes, over and above the core curriculum of the centre.

Apco is also working actively to explore other areas of development in the various domains of childcare operations, to elevate the standards of private childcare organisations in Singapore.

Mr Roger Tan

Exco member,

Association of Private Childcare Organisations

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 11 Nov, 2008.