An Comparative Study on the Early-Childhood Education in Southeast Asian Countries -Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore

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This study tries to make clear the differences in the early-childhood education among three countries, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Major objects of this study are to find the following issues.1. To study the laws, regulations and accreditation system on early-childhood education.2. To clarify the pre-school teacher training and qualification scheme on the stage of early childhood education.3. To observe on-going pre-school programmes or projects to develop children's potential at each age.4. To obtain the textbooks and materials to be actually used there.In order to get the above information, data and materials, our members had visited kindergartens, child care centers and the related agencies, and to interview their staffs.In Thailand, moral education based on Buddhism philosophy, national issues (ex. Kingdom, national flag and national history, etc.) and rural cultures has been emphasized until now. However, the Ministry of Education recently permits some Islamic institutions in south peninsula to teach their religious subject and values.In Malaysia as known "plural society", we could find huge differences in early-childhood education between urban and rural area, or public and private sector. In urban area, private companies try to introduce vary ethnic children to unique activities for understanding each culture and values. In the contrary, Islamic and/or Malay agencies as dominant group in rural area have tried to promote their religious issues.In Singapore, the People's Action Party( PAP) as ruling party has expanded their own kindergartens in nation-wide. About 80% of children wearing uniforms with the PAP symbol attend their facilities to learn English, their ethnic language and Scientific subjects using IT equipments. PAP agency manages highly centralized kindergartens and develop "integrated programe" as effective teaching method to equip bilingual abilities with their children.