’Play’ an Important Aspect of Early Childhood: Heng Swee Keat

Play is a very important aspect of early childhood development. It is helpful is stimulating curiosity and nurturing creativity, says Heng Swee Keat, the Education Minister of Singapore.  

Recently, the Education Minister of Singapore was spotted at “Back to Play! — A Tampines Learning Initiative”, which is a family festival. The festival is mainly targeted at parents to encourage them to provide children with more amorphous playtime. This will allow children to engage in creative activities in the absence of adult guidance.

Importance of Play

Addressing reporters Heng Swee Keat stated that playtime is of extreme importance for children and should never be regarded as wastage of time. Play actually helps in bringing out the core values required for developing self-confidence along with enhancing social skills of children. Play brings out curiosity within children to explore the world around them, which further helps in nurturing their creativity.

He also stated that all their MOE kindergartens and lower primary education systems are based on this very approach.

Talking about the budget, he further added that the lower and middle income families can now expect a fairly substantial increase in bursaries for their children.

The budget of 2014 has opened up significant opportunities for tutor jobs in Singapore, as more parents will now be able to afford home tutors in Singapore with the money they save on the education, the provisions of which have already been made clear in the latest budget.