Choosing a Kindergarten?

How to choose a good kindergarten and nursery for your child?

When our child turned two, it is time for us to consider the nursery services or pre school education that you want for our child.

As we all know 0-6 years are the golden period for child development. The moral value, learning attitude and habits are developed during this period. Hence, choosing the right nursery and kindergarten will give your child a jump start in life.

Before visiting the nursery or kindergarten, did you ever sit down and ponder what are you really looking for? Do you want a school that emphasizes on academic only? According to Professor Dr. Chiam Heng Keng, President, Association of Professional Early Childhood educators, Malaysia, “ Learning is not just for exam results but for self development, for the drive to go on learning for life”.

What are the factors you should consider when choosing a kindergarten? What is important?

Here are some advices on how to choose a quality preschool. (adopted from positive parenting article. The full article can be found at www.mypositive parenting.org/articles/english/preparepreschool.htm )

1. Child-safe, child friendly

Your child’s safety is top priority. This is why it is so important that a preschool is registered! This means that it satisfies local safety, fire and hygiene requirement. You can know whether the preschool is registered by seeing the JPN registration number on the signboard. In additions to this, see if safety measures are taken. For instances, ensure that the outdoor area is properly fence, no sharp corners on the tables, sinks and toilet are child-sized.

2. Comfortable number of children

When it comes to preschools, more is not necessarily merrier! As open communication is important in the learning process, an ideal class size is between 12-15 children with a teacher and one assistant for younger age.


3. Good and qualified preschool teacher

A good preschool teacher is kind, cheerful and loves children. She is interested in and actively involved in what the children are doing. She is dressed in clothes that allowed her to kneel down to the children’s level when talking to them, run around and even crawl with then during play time. She has the knowledge on the preschool curriculum, understand child development. Did the teachers attend training regularly?

4. Happy, expressive and production children

You should sees children working in group for projects making friends and having fun. They are expressive, confident and openly communicate with each other as well as their teacher during class. You also can see children are actively participates in performance and presentation in many occasions.

5. A Curriculum that fits the child

The preschool curriculum must emphasize on total development of the child. The National Preschool curriculum (NPC) was formulated in 2003 as a set of guides to help preschool plan activities and construct experiences that will optimize all aspects of the children development. We hope the education system can produce thinking individuals who are inquisitive, able to create and innovate, solve problems and are consistently exploring new ideas, skilled and resilient individual who love their country and are grounded in moral values.


Actually, early childhood care and education (ECCE) is provided not just through preschools but at homes too. You can build a strong foundation for your children’s future by creating for them the right environment and ensuring that they have positive experiences at all times- whether they are at home or at preschool.