On top of all this, our notice period for resignation is a whooping 3 months. And if we want to do our practicum with the school, we’ll be bonded for another 6 months.

If the parents don’t trouble us so much, the school makes it difficult for us.
Now you may wonder, what’s the salary of these teachers, teacher assistants – $800, teachers – $1500, Principals – $ 2000.

I’m overwhelmed to have read your journal as a childcare teacher and glad to have noted that you are indeed very supportive and understanding to have taken an extra mile to justify for preschool educators.

I indeed want to salute to your boldness, support, understanding and achievements that you had earned for yourself. Hope that you could continue to support us.

Merry Christmas & Blessed New Year!

Recognising this as an effort to bring the standard of early childhood in Singapore, we also have to measure it against living. With a 5 O level credits, one can easily find a 9-5 job, no take home preperation, no headaches after work job at 1.4k per month.

But without professional training, which comes with a bond, with that O levels credit, with that work load, and many preperation work to be done after working hours, one’s beginning pay is i would say not more than 1.2k per month.

Who would choose this line then?
Whats more when you tell people this job includes a maid’s job, a nanny’s job, a nurses’s work, cleaners responsibility and sometimes even a cooK’s job?
When you open the papers on the classified, how many preschools are looking for QUALIFIED teachers?

And Roger also compares the job of a kindergarten teacher to a child care teacher, i don’t think they differ alot, kindergarten teachers also clears poo and dirty things whenever that happens. BTW each term, a kindergarten teacher will have at least 50 sets of port folio to prepare in addition to the lesson plan work before each term ends. Each day a kindergarten teacher teaches at least 2-4 classes running back to back. This is actually a very fast paced job and even trained teachers cannot handle, less not the untrained.

If you think a preschool teachers only teaches “ABC”, “123″ and nursery rhymes, think twice. If you think being a preschool teacher is the way out because you’ve not done very well in your O levels, think twice too.

COme into this job with the mindset of children as our future. LOVE them as your own, Teach them like how you want your child to learn. If you have that, I welcome you in this line. I guess all principals will agree with me… its not a “easy way out” field like pple think it was

there is another form of ill-treatment quite a number of pre-school teachers suffer from – BONDS!!! many of the big pre-schools send their teachers for specialist diploma or certificate courses in child development such as kumon, montessori etc etc… these courses cost from $1000 plus to $4000 odd.

after completion the pre-school teachers face a bond of 3 years or 2 years up to 5 years. the wages of these teachers are not fantastic either. its hardly more than $1500 in the best cases. the very reason these teachers resort to accepting the school’s offer to pay for the course fees in return for 2-5 years bond is because of their inability to afford the fees. their economic impoverished state due to their low wages despite their high productivity results puts them in a vulnerable state to be exploited by those guilty pre-schools.

the first gap is the non-existance of government subsidies for these retraining. the Skills Development Fund and other government initiatives ought to subsidize fully these kinds of retraining. i mean there is so much call from politicians for re-training.so much money is set aside by politicians. they complain labor does not heed their calls. . here labor is keen to be retrained. yet public money is not going to aid these labor for retraining.

the second gap is the non-existance of labor protection. the kind of bonds these pre-schools offer their staff is criminal. 2-5 years bond for $1000 to $4000???? outrageous!!! the bonds also do not come with an increased pay package. at least that may make the whole deal fairer. instead the pay package remains the same or there are little superficial increases.

there is absolutely no basis or valid arguments for such bonds. its cruel and inhumane yet employers in Singapore feel otherwise. when i share these labor practices with foreigners they are bewildered. its unheard of. i have seen, IN THE REAL FIRST WORLD, friends nearing retirement getting funding and scholarships to do degrees where the amounts come to $30,000 to $50,000. yet the companies give that so that the employees can move into new jobs at older ages. well that is the civilized FIRST WORLD i guess. we are only FIRST WORLD by concrete and steel.

More importantly, I think the childcare centres could have managed such expectations a little better…. All too often, money comes first.

I did a dissertation on a comparative study between Childcare Centre and Kindergarten some years back. I have also taught quite a number of ChildCare Supervisors and Kindergarten principals before. I believe the expectations of parents and the government agency is quite aligned. So I do not think things will change in the near term. Unless and until our government agency start to recognise the importance of early childhood education and its role in the development of the child, parents will take an even longer time to realise it.

That said, I think some discerning parents are recognising this and that is the reason why highend Childcare Centres are doing remarkably well. Perhaps a stint in these centres will be more fulfilling for you but even then do not expect the pay to be above your expectation. Sadly, only certain jobs in Singapore are paid highly, and Childcare teachers do not belong to this category.