Pre-schools: Ensure the right conditions for kids' development

A recent local study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly links the amount of time spent in childcare beyond 40 hours with lower scores on literacy and numeracy assessments among 2,330 children aged three to six (English and maths scores suffer when pre-schoolers spend over 40 hours a week in childcare: Study, Jan 11).

- Ng Ee Lynn Assistant Centre Director Early Childhood Education Research Centre for Research in Child Development National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University (and three other authors)

In addition to triggering parental anxieties, discussions around how long children should attend childcare risk detracting from what matters for children's development.

Early childhood education (ECE) is important in a child's life. It provides structured learning, social interaction and a safe environment for growth. A complex system of factors, going beyond the number of hours at childcare, influences the effects of ECE on child development.

These factors include the staff-child ratio, the learning environment, quality of teacher-child interactions, and whether the programme employs an evidence-based curriculum with teachers trained in early childhood development.

In the article, the researchers acknowledge their assessment of ECE quality was inadequate and depended on the type of ECE operator. This is a crucial point, as it is unclear whether the type of operator is related to what constitutes quality programming.