Appreciating Early Childhood Educators; Looking After Their Well-Being
29 Aug 2024
APPRECIATING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS;
LOOKING AFTER THEIR WELL-BEING
ECDA announced update on Relief Staff Pool initiative during
Teachers’ Day celebrations at M.Y World @ Dawson
1 President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Senior Parliamentary Secretary (SPS) for Social and Family Development Eric Chua joined Early Childhood (EC) educators, preschoolers and their parents at M.Y World @ Dawson for their Teachers’ Day celebration today. President Tharman expressed his heartfelt appreciation for preschool teachers in Singapore and celebrated their contributions in providing a good start for every child, ahead of Teachers’ Day on 30 August 2024.
Celebrating preschools’ partnership with parents and the community
2 During the Teachers’ Day celebration, educators, parents and children participated in an intergenerational activity designed to foster meaningful interactions and mutual understanding between preschoolers and seniors. The activity was part of the M.Y World’s Start Small Dream Big (SSDB) community service project in 2024, in partnership with FaithActs, a non-profit community care service. The SSDB movement aims to inculcate good values in children, such as kindness, compassion and respect, while encouraging them to give back to society. More than 500,000 children have participated in the movement since its inception in 2015. A recent survey commissioned by ECDA also revealed that SSDB has provided a meaningful and effective platform to support children’s holistic development and strengthen home-preschool-community partnerships (see Annex A).
Appreciating EC educators through ‘Gifts from the Heart’
3 To encourage public appreciation of EC educators, President Tharman penned a personalised appreciation message to all preschool teachers in Singapore on a Teachers’ Day gift. This is part of ECDA’s move to rally parents and caregivers to share heartfelt appreciation messages for their child’s teachers through the “Best Gifts come from the Heart” initiative, in celebration of Teachers’ Day this year.
4 President Tharman highlighted that “Teachers’ Day is a timely reminder for us to recognise the dedication of our EC educators. Let us celebrate the important work they do in providing a good start for every child, and the positive impact they have on our children’s early years. Their commitment to our children today shapes our tomorrow. Fostering a culture of appreciation for our educators helps to uplift respect for the profession, and builds trust and meaningful relationships between parents and teachers. I encourage families and educators to work closely together to support the holistic development of our children.”
5 President Tharman and SPS Eric Chua also presented the ‘Special Treats’ Thank You Kit to educators at the Teachers’ Day celebration event. Around 25,000 EC educators in Singapore will receive the ‘Special Treats’ Thank You Kit, a ground-up initiative by social enterprise Preschool Market and the Association for Early Childhood Educators Singapore (AECES) (see Annex B).
Enhancing educators’ well-being
6 To improve educators’ well-being, ECDA has implemented several initiatives over the years, such as designating Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day as preschool holidays and removing Saturday childcare services from 2025 onwards so that educators can recharge and have better work-life balance. Later this year, ECDA will be appointing service provider(s) to provide relief staff services to the sector (see Annex C). This is to ensure that all preschools have access to a readily available pool of relief staff to address their manpower needs at reasonable rates and reliable service standards so that educators can better balance their professional and personal needs.
7 The commitment to uplift the EC sector and profession is demonstrated in the sector’s refreshed ‘Shape Our Tomorrow’ campaign, launched by ECDA in end June 2024. This campaign emphasizes educators’ and parents’ complementary roles in supporting our children’s growth and development (see Annex D).
