SINGAPORE – All full-time pre-school teachers will get at least two hours of non-teaching time every week, from November 2027, to carry out duties such as planning their lessons and preparing resources.
The requirement is part of the Early Childhood Development Agency’s (ECDA) efforts to improve working conditions for pre-school teachers and give them more space away from direct teaching and care of children.
“We have heard educators ask for dedicated time to carry out these responsibilities sustainably,” said Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli, who made the announcement on Oct 13 at ECDA’s annual Scholarships and Training Awards Presentation Ceremony, held at the Suntec Convention Centre.
“The work of an early childhood educator goes beyond the classroom. Educators plan learning experiences, document each child’s development, and work alongside parents, and all this to support our children’s learning and well-being. These responsibilities are integral to delivering quality pre-school education.”
These are all part of “non-contact time”, or time away from contact with the children.
While some pre-schools already carve out non-teaching time for their teachers, Masagos said “establishing a common minimum will ensure that every educator has protected time to carry out these essential responsibilities”, to support a more consistent quality of education for pre-school children.
Workload was the top factor that pre-school educators said impacted their well-being, according to a survey initially released in August. There are currently about 28,000 preschool educators in service in 2026.
Centres will have the flexibility to implement the new requirement according to their needs, while ensuring the two hours of non-teaching time are within teachers’ working hours.
Those that can offer more than two hours are encouraged to do so, Masagos added.
The minister also said the Government has invested more than $75 million over the past five years to create better working conditions for pre-school educators and support their professional development.
Through initiatives such as the Early Childhood Education Scholarship, Training Awards and Professional Development Programme, the educators are supported at different stages of their careers.
Latisah Salimen, 43, an infant toddler educator at Iyad Perdaus Jurong East, was among those who received an award at the ceremony for their achievements in the Professional Development Programme for educators.
She currently has one hour of non-contact time each week, mainly when the children take a nap.
This time is important for her to feel more organised and prepared, so that she can be more present and responsive when interacting with the children. She uses the time to prepare resources, and review and document children’s evaluations based on her daily observations.
Latisah Salimen, infant-toddler educator at Iyad Perdaus Jurong, pictured on Oct 13.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Though the new non-contact time requirement allows her only one more hour for non-teaching tasks, Latisah told The Straits Times it still makes a difference as it gives her more room to have a breather and complete administrative tasks.
“One hour is actually quite a limited time, you can’t do much except to catch up with whatever you have left off. But with the change next year, I feel I can do a little bit more. At the same time, you are away from the children, so you have more time for yourself,” said Latisah, who has nearly 10 years’ experience in the early childhood sector.
She said that although it can be a challenge to provide each teacher with two hours of contact time weekly due to manpower issues, centre leaders can do so with careful rostering.
Keefe Wayne Teo, 29, director of Bright Kids School House said the centre sees non-contact time as an opportunity to support more intentional lesson planning and preparation. This creates better learning experiences for children.
Across its five centres, Bright Kids’ teachers currently have between one and two hours of non-contact time. Full-time teachers work approximately 8½ to 9 hours daily, totalling 44 hours weekly.
With about 80 educators on staff, Bright Kids can accommodate all teachers’ two hours of protected non-teaching time a week. Nonetheless, Teo said the centre will adopt stricter rostering and monitoring to successfully implement this minimum requirement.
Even so, a manpower crunch may be unavoidable occasionally.
“If a teacher goes on maternity leave, it is manpower shortage for quite a long duration… If a particular class or group of students has more needs, it’s harder to sustain operations for that class with ECDA’s teacher-pupil ratio (requirements), as more teachers will be needed,” he said.
Bright Kids is currently seeking partnerships with external specialists to support classrooms with more diverse needs, like special education needs. Teo said this is in efforts to free up their teachers’ time and support them in this area.