I REFER to the report, "Should preschools be 'nationalised'?" last Saturday.

The ability to absorb and retain information is heightened in children of preschool age, and therefore education at this time is highly beneficial in the long run.

Related link: » Preschool education should be MOE's baby

Another argument for making preschool education compulsory stems from Singapore's perpetual reliance on its main resource - its manpower - in an increasingly competitive global economy. Equipping and preparing our children today affect the quality of our manpower in future, and will also help uphold our education standards.

The situation in which one in every 40 children who entered Primary 1 last year not having gone through preschool, and the other 39 having received unequal standards of education, can be rectified with the nationalisation of preschool education.

Joel Tng

This article was first published in The Straits Times.