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3.
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identified in the Green Paper:
(a) social and emotional development;
(b) activities to stimulate the formation of concepts;
(c) activities to develop linguistic competence;
(d) activities to develop creativity;
(e) motor activities to improve co-ordination.
At present, owing to lack of training, the need to cover these areas of development
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In order
is only clearly understood in a very limited number of kindergartens.
to guide teachers to an understanding of these areas and to ways in which they
can be promoted, an intense period of curriculum development will be needed
together with a systematic scheme of teacher training.
Curriculum Development
3.8
It is widely accepted that for curriculum development to be fully
effective it is essential to include practising teachers working on a full-time
basis. The Government intends to follow this practice at all levels of
curriculum development. However, at the kindergarten level, it is particularly
difficult to do so, as the number of kindergarten teachers with sufficient
knowledge and experience to carry out this work is very limited and these are
all employed in the private sector. Details of this scheme will need to be worked
out with operators of kindergartens which employ suitably qualified teachers.
In essence, the kindergartens will be asked to release the teachers for a
specified period of time (say six months) during which the Government will
compensate the school for the additional costs involved in the employment of
temporary replacements. Schools releasing teachers will also be invited to
participate in projects associated with kindergarten curriculum development.
In this way, the schools and their staff should gain considerable long-term
benefit. The Government is confident that some of the bodies operating non-
profit-making kindergartens will be pleased to take part in such ventures.
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