In Singapore, education is a top priority – from a young age. Future leaders are to grow up in pre-school educational institutions. The concept seems to be working.
Aly has just opened her first café. She has baked cookies and cupcakes and invented a hot drink: the marshmallow babyccino, a kind of children’s coffee – warm milk foam, garnished with colorful, melted marshmallow bacon. A hit, business is going well, she says. Aly lives in Singapore – and is five years old. In the Southeast Asian city-state, she attends the private Trehaus kindergarten. Its concept: a lot of Silicon Valley, a lot of start-up mentality and entrepreneurial spirit. The kindergarten focuses on “soft skills” and the development of little personalities with their own minds and the ability to think critically.
“Little CEO” – career games in kindergarten
Aly is a “Little Entrepreneur”. The other programs offered by the early childhood education facility hang on the wall in the hallway: “Little CEO”, “Little Engineer”, “Little Philanthropist”, “Little Creative” and “Little Chef”. From the board of directors to the philanthropist to the cook and artist, everything is there that the society of tomorrow needs and could perhaps make it a little better.
The children should learn to take the lead, work in a team, be creative, and invent new things. Aly’s mother, Marissa Leufke, is convinced by the concept: “It’s not just about educational success, but also about how children deal with their feelings, how they behave in a group, or how they can occupy themselves alone,” she explains. “In other words, everything that is important later in life.”
On the way to becoming a CEO: educational programs at the Trehaus kindergarten.
In addition to “soft skills” such as resilience, the children also learn a little reading, writing and arithmetic – and they do so bilingually, in English and Chinese. In other kindergartens, this is optionally Malay or Tamil. English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil are the four official languages in the multi-ethnic state of Singapore. Therefore, in addition to the first reading, writing and arithmetic, bilingualism is also a standard part of the Singapore preschool program, regardless of whether it is a state or private provider.
Care from seven in the morning to seven in the evening
In addition to private institutions that are licensed by the state, such as Trehaus, there are also public kindergartens. “Bilingualism is a hallmark of our education system. Since the 1960s, almost everyone who went to school in Singapore has learned two languages - English and their mother tongue,” says Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. “After decades of bilingualism policy, most people can appreciate and personally attest to the benefits of learning two languages.”
Singapore is small and poor in natural resources. This makes education all the more important as a resource – and it begins in infancy. In order to better recognize the importance of early childhood education and care, the government has more than doubled the number of all-day programs in the past ten years, to over 200,000 places, according to the ECDA (Early Childhood Development Agency), the agency responsible for preschools. All-day means from seven in the morning to seven in the evening, and sometimes from as young as two months of age. This means that both parents can quickly return to full-time work.
Pisa-Primus Singapore
The investment in education seems to be paying off. The successes in the most recent OECD PISA study prove the metropolis of six million inhabitants right. Mathematics, reading skills, natural sciences – Singapore is at the top in all areas. It was not about mindless memorization, but about the transfer of what has been learned and problem solving.
Prime Minister Wong himself is a little surprised by the results: “We never had a reputation for being particularly creative. But we are. We should be proud of our students and teachers,” he said in his recent speech to the nation in response to the good results. Wong was previously Minister of Education, is himself a Harvard graduate, and his mother is a primary school teacher. Education is his top priority.
Families pay a lot for private tutoring
But it’s not just schools and preschools that are supposed to train Singapore’s students to the highest level. (Pre-)school education is flanked by the so-called “enrichment” or “tuition” sector. Singaporeans understand this to mean extra lessons outside of school to provide children with additional support and prepare them for exams. A billion-dollar market: According to the 2017/2018 budget report from the Singapore Statistics Authority, Singapore families spent the equivalent of one billion euros on these private tutoring lessons. On average, that’s around 80 euros per household per month.
Unlike in Germany, it is not only children with special needs who use these extracurricular, supplementary learning units. Around 70 percent of all children in the Southeast Asian city-state do. Although these lessons are not compulsory, many Singaporeans find these “buffer boosters” necessary in order to be able to keep up in the competitive, performance-oriented society. From Chinese to programming to training the right side of the brain, almost everything can be found in the program.
The price: anxiety disorders and depressive symptoms
But all of this apparently comes at a price: According to the PISA study, Singaporean students complained about the lack of support from their parents. In addition, they did less sport after school than the OECD average. Outsourcing learning to external service providers and cramming at a desk until late at night leaves its mark. Mental ones too, as Professor John Wong from Singapore’s NUS University found out in a study. One in ten young people in Singapore suffers from a mental disorder.
“41 percent of those surveyed have anxiety disorders, 15 percent have depressive symptoms,” says Professor Wong. And he stresses the important role that the pre-school sector plays in mental health: “It lays the foundation for a child’s development.” But it is not about replacing the role of parents and family, “which is actually something some of us parents like to do.”
Trehaus wants to make this better from the start. Here, parents can actively participate in their little ones’ kindergarten life and work in the integrated “coworking space”. Five-year-old Aly runs from her mother to her friends, wanting to play. Like most five-year-olds.