SINGAPORE — A S$6 million partnership between Lien Foundation and NTUC First Campus was announced this morning (Sept 10), to help boost Singapore’s pre-school sector.

Funds from this first-ever collaboration will be pumped into four areas, one of which is the opening of My First Skool @ Braddell Heights Community Hub.

The new branch, which will be built at the old Serangoon Interchange, aims to be a new model for heartland pre-schools. There are plans to use community spaces for play and planned learning, as well as to incorporate technology to help children learn.

The centre is expected to open in December this year and will take in 200 children aged two months to six years.

In the first quarter of 2014, a second branch of the Caterpillar’s Cove childcare centre will also be set up at the Devan Nair Institute, to provide a “living classroom” for trainee teachers at the SEED Institute training centre to observe lessons and complete their practicums. 10 per cent of the new places here will be set aside for children from less privileged families, with financial grants funded by the Lien Foundation.

Some of the funds will also go into research on early childhood education in Singapore. There will be three areas of research - early intervention and help for children from low-income families, the impact of parent engagement, and an evaluation of a relationship-based curriculum for children up to three years old.

There will also be a national campaign to boost the professional image and status of pre-school teachers.

Speaking at an event held at Caterpillar’s Cove Child Development and Study Centre at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Mr Lee Poh Wah, the chief executive officer of Lien Foundation said: “This initiative is a bold response in support of the ongoing reforms taking place in the pre-school sector. We wish to spur the development of more well designed pre-schools that not only optimise resources, (but) also become inspiring places of learning for children, teachers and parents.”