You were asking about the Singapore system of education. I can’t really comment on the primary, secondary and tertiary systems. I can only speak for the preschool system of education. Generally, the educational environment is the same anywhere. We have Montessori schools, Piagetian schools, IBB schools, Multiple Intelligence schools and schools with eclectic philosophies (meaning a little bit of High-Scope, Reggio Emilia etc.) It all depends on the parents where they want to send their child. So I don’t think we are far behind. In fact, my niece who was in Nursery at a small village school in Paranaque found K1 boring here. They were just teaching her how to write, but she already knew how. She needed to be challenged but that was their curriculum so we focused on her social skills instead. How she adapted to the new environment and made new friends and learn Mandarin for the first time.

Learning through Play is the ‘in’ concept that the Ministry of Education (MOE) is promoting. And most of the kindergartens are carrying it out through the use of learning centres. There are some schools that use worksheets at K1 and K2 while some object to it totally. MOE also encourages schools to issue portfolios. Another ‘in’ thing. So that’s where I used the comments found in your blog. In the school I work in, we write about how the child is doing in 5 domains every other month. So since I have 15 children, that’s 15×5 domanisx3months for this semester ending in June. That’s a “lot of English”. hahahaa.

Our school year starts in Jan and ends in November. Generally, most preschools have 10 weeks and then 1 week break in March. 10 weeks again and 4 weeks break in May-June. 10 weeks and then 1 week break in Sept. 10 weeks again and then 6 week break in Nov-Dec.

I really find your blog interesting and am amazed with your time management skills. Kudos to your supportive hubby and children.

Cheers
Jec

Thanks for visiting!

I’m Jec, teaching preschool children in Singapore. I needed to do a narrative progress report and chanced upon your blog. It really is a great help. Sometimes kasi, you’ve written them all that everything sounds so boring already. Galing mo naman. I’m inspired to write better comments.

All the best!
Jec