Ellie has just opened her first coffee shop. She baked cookies and cupcakes and invented a new hot drink: marshmallow babycino, a kind of children's coffee – warm fresh milk with lots of foam, topped with colorful, melted marshmallows. He says it's a big hit and business is going very well.
Ellie lives in Singapore, she is only five years old and attends a private kindergarten, writes ARD. The concept there reads: very Silicon Valley, startup mentality and entrepreneurial spirit. Kindergarten focuses on soft skills and tries to develop young individuals with their own ideas and ability to think critically.
Various business games
Kindergarten offers various business games. For example, Eli is a “Small entrepreneur”. On the hallway wall are the other programs offered by the preschool: “Little Executive“, “Little Engineer“, “Little Philanthropist“, “Little Creative“ or “Little Chef”. From CEO and philanthropist to chef and artist, the program includes everything that tomorrow's society could need.
Children learn to take initiative, work in a team, be creative and invent new things. In addition to developing personal qualities and skills to regulate their emotions, children begin to learn reading, writing and mathematics for the first time - bilingually, in English and Chinese. In other kindergartens, they can also choose to learn Malay or Tamil, the four official languages in the multi-ethnic nation of Singapore. Bilingualism is a standard part of the curriculum in Singaporean kindergartens, whether public or private.
Child care from seven in the morning to seven in the evening
As Singapore is small and poor in natural resources, education is seen as an extremely important resource. It starts at an early age. As ARD further points out, in the last 10 years, the opportunities for childcare and education at preschool age have grown significantly: places have doubled to 200,000, and classes are now all-day, that is, from seven in the morning, almost everywhere until seven in the evening. In some kindergartens, they are already accepting babies as young as 2 months old. The aim is to enable both parents to quickly return to full-time work, the German publication specifies.
Singapore is a leader in PISA tests
Investments in education clearly pay off. It is also shown by the good results of the PISA tests – there, Singaporean children lead the way in math, reading and science. The focus is not on meaningless memorization, but on the application of what has been learned in practice and solving problems, writes ARD.
But it's not just schools and preschools that are responsible for this success: in Singapore, private lessons are very popular, giving children extra confidence and preparing them for exams. It's a billion dollar market. According to official statistics, in 2017-2018, Singaporean families spent the equivalent of one billion euros on private tutoring – on average about 80 euros per household every month.
Unlike in Germany, for example, it is not only children with special educational needs who benefit from these additional forms of education. The program includes almost everything from Chinese language and programming to memory and thinking training.
The other side of the coin
But all of this clearly comes at a price: Singaporean students do less sports after school than the OECD average, and late-night homework takes its toll. Professor John Wong from Singapore's NUS University has found in his research that one in ten young people in Singapore suffers from some kind of mental disorder.
„41% of those surveyed have fear neuroses, and 15% also show signs of depression,” says Wong, quoted by ARD. And this once again shows the important role that kindergarten plays for mental health: “It lays the foundations for the child's development”, the scientist emphasizes. Some kindergartens have already realized the need for change. There they provide shared spaces for parents to work, so that they are not separated from the children all day long.