An Education Ministry review, called Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review (ASPIRE), is underway to “future-proof” young Singaporeans against unemployment. It is studying Germany’s apprenticeship model.

One sector the review will focus on is early childhood education.

Details are pending, but preschools said apprenticeships could help ease their manpower crunch in the long term.

Michelle Tan is a third-year student of early childhood studies at Temasek Polytechnic.

For the diploma course, she interned as an assistant teacher at a local preschool for three months.

Ms Tan said: “(The internship) was the best part of the whole three years in Temasek Polytechnic. One has to learn to adapt to the work surrounding, to the children, and try to meet their needs.

“Even our teachers told us that for every batch of year three students who come back from internship, we’re all more mature, and there’s a certain growth in every individual.”

The internship also helped decide if working with young children was what she truly wanted as a career.

But she said a longer, more structured work experience – or an apprenticeship – would be even better.

Ms Tan said: “Once we adapt to the surroundings we could apply more, and learn more from our experience.”

Educators said it is about time that more focus is given to training and learning on the job.

Dr Karuna Marthenis, course manager of early childhood studies at Temasek Polytechnic, said: “We are talking about students who are pre-service people, who are going to go out there after three years of education to work with young children or other colleagues.

“They need to be more confident, they need to have more practice, and how else does it come? During their three-year programme with us, but within that programme they need more time with industry.”

This would mean more learning outside of the school.

Asked if apprenticeships would diminish the role of polytechnic lecturers and teachers like herself, Dr Karuna said: “Definitely not. They need that theoretical application, and that comes from us, the lecturers or teachers so to speak. Always, the apprentice needs someone more knowledgeable to guide them. This is also in our pedagogical practices.

“When our young teachers go out there to work with young children, they don’t teach and teach, they facilitate the child’s learning – likewise for us.”

Anchor preschool operator PAP Community Foundation (PCF) is prepared to expand its mentorship programme for trainee teachers, said CEO Tay Swee Yee.

PCF receives 50 to 70 trainees, mainly its own scholars and other polytechnic students, at its kindergartens or childcare centres every year.

The early childhood education sector is facing a severe manpower crunch.

“If you don’t take trainees, it’s very hard to have experienced teachers,” said Ng Gim Choo, who runs EtonHouse International, a private preschool with centres in Singapore and China.

EtonHouse China already has an apprenticeship programme that Mdm Ng said can be replicated in Singapore.

Trainees are selected from vocational colleges, and undergo a one-year apprenticeship during the final year of their three-year diploma course.

Those who successfully complete the apprenticeship are awarded the diploma and become qualified assistant teachers.

“It benefits both preschool and trainee,” said Mdm Ng.

Dr Khoo Kim Choo, founder of Preschool for Multiple Intelligences, said: “When you teach somebody you are actually learning yourself, again, and learning to be better. So it works both ways. But yes, it is going to be a bit of a demand for the teacher at first. But as we get used to the system, I think it would work out pretty well.”

Experts said investing in apprentices is necessary, to get more people into a growing sector that needs more hands on deck.

Six top independent schools in Singapore have had their funding cut and, along with other mission schools, have been told to moderate fund-raising activities for campus upgrading.

In addition, they will have to comply with a new directive urging all schools with air-conditioned classrooms to install fans and use air-conditioning only when necessary.

The six schools rank among the top in the Singapore education scene, comprising the Raffles secondary schools and its junior college, Hwa Chong Institution, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and NUS High School of Mathematics and Science.

They all run both the Integrated Programme (IP) and Gifted Education Programme (GEP). The IP provides a seamless secondary and junior college education with students bypassing the O levels. The GEP caters to students in the top 1 to 2 per cent of their cohort.

School officials did not want to disclose how much funding was cut, but The Straits Times understands all six schools used to get additional per capita grants for each student on the IP and GEP, but now have had the IP portion taken away. Alumni and sources close to the schools estimate the IP portion is between 4 and 8 per cent of operating budgets, or over a million dollars a year.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has also told all independent and mission schools to “moderate” their fund-raising activities for campus upgrading.

Schools need to get MOE approval if they want to raise money for “non-standard” features such as swimming pools. MOE is now warning that it will give the green light only if the facility is “essential” to school programmes.

The raft of changes comes at a time of rising concern over the worsening student diversity in top schools here. Even Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong commented that top secondary schools were becoming “closed circles” last year when announcing MOE’s plans to encourage more students from poorer socio-economic backgrounds to aim for a place in the most competitive schools.

MOE will also from this year start restricting the number of places in any primary school reserved for alumni parents.

The gap between Singapore’s top and neighbourhood schools has over the decades widened partly as a result of factors like bigger and better facilities built with alumni funds.

Parent Annie Lim, 47, who chose not to send her son to an independent school, applauded MOE for being “sensible”.

“Why should some schools have pools and tennis courts? I’d rather taxpayers’ money is spent building such facilities for a cluster of schools.”

However, one alumni member, who served as a member of an independent school board, asked if MOE was going too far. “I hope it doesn’t lead to MOE bringing everyone down so that all schools are more or less equal, instead of levelling everyone up.”

In a reply to The Straits Times, MOE said it reviews schools’ funding regularly and in a holistic manner. After taking everything into account, it added, independent schools saw changes in “total resourcing” ranging from cuts of 3 per cent to increases of 5 per cent.

As for the curbs on fund-raising, MOE said it “already invests significantly in the infrastructure of each school” and added schools should consider the cost of operating these non-standard facilities.

“By 2016, we will have an integrated online learning portal for all our primary and secondary school students. This is a most invigorating prospects, but I want to say, it is not just about using technology more. Ultimately it is about how we use technology to bring out the heart of education,” said Heng in a Facebook post this week.

He went on to commend Christopher Chee, a teacher from Christchurch Secondary School, for his use of flipped classrooms that kept the students so engaged they stayed beyond schools hours to learn more.

Flipped classroom is a form of blended learning where students learn new content online before class, and lesson time is focused on interaction and discussion.

Chee first read about flipped classroom being practised by professors at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

After finding out more from these professors, Chee implemented this form of learning on his class. He asked his students to watch an online video on math concepts at home and adopted team-based learning in class.

Heng was impressed with Chee’s gumption and encouraged other teachers to innovate.

“He dared to imagine possibilities and dared to try! Yes technology matters, but teachers matter most of all. Our technological advances are to help our teachers do an even better job. If our teachers continue to use technology with such gutsiness, I am excited for the great learning opportunities that will open up for our children,” said Heng.

“I know other teachers across our schools are also innovating in different ways, and I look forward to learning more about our teachers’ innovations and experiences,”