Department of Education, Taipei City Government

Early Childhood Education(Preschool Education)

●General Information

The aim of the Department of Education is to pursue high-quality early childhood education. It takes the welfare of children as the priority and relies on the involvement of the government and local communities with the goal of matching parents’ expectations, improving specialization of teachers, and developing the features of pre-school educational institutions to create a new era of early childhood education.
There are currently 139 public kindergartens (including 2 independent kindergartens, 133 kindergartens within the elementary schools and 4 kindergartens within the special education schools) with 435 recruited classes and 11,805 pupils, there are 182 private kindergartens, recruiting a total of 11,700 children. The results of statistic analysis showed that the enrollment rate for Taipei City municipal kindergartens is approximately 96.2%.

●Important Missions

1. Assisting children from disadvantaged minorities to receive early education andelevate the rate of enrollment at kindergartens for children at the age of five
In order to assist children from financially disadvantaged families to receive early education, Taipei City municipal kindergartens shall grant admission priorities to children meeting the following criteria: children from low income families, children with either parent impaired with moderate/severe mental/physical disabilities, children of aboriginal lineage, children with mental/physical disabilities, children with either parent being an alien resident, children with mothers under special circumstances, children from middle-low income families/families in crisis, children from families with triplet siblings (or more) or being the third (or subsequent) child of a family and so forth. In addition, these kindergartens will also collaborate with the Ministry of Education to offer various subsidies for five-year-old children from disadvantaged minorities and other early education projects to elevate the admission rate at http://www-ws.gov.taipei/001/Upload/public/private kindergartens and childcare centers for children at the targeted age group.
2. Consolidate teachers’ professional expertise and education to reinforce child educators’ competence and knowledge
In order to consolidate teachers’ professional expertise and education to reinforce child educators’ competence and knowledge for the purpose of maintaining the quality of education for young children, the Department has planned, diversified and enriched child education training activities with themes that cover relevant policies and regulations (i.e. gender equality, life education and child protection) on administration and management, kindergarten operation and management, community participation and resource utilization, food and hygiene, meal and nutrition for children, child education courses and assessment, child development and learning, child healthcare, early intervention, child accident prevention and handling and parenting education and so forth.
3. Plan for of various safety education activities at kindergartens to ensure children safety
The Department shall establish various implementation guidelines on kindergartens’ physical settings, environmental sanitation, game facilities, hygiene of potable water and food, school bus management and maintenance and so forth, requests that every kindergarten observe these guidelines. In addition, the Department will conduct routine and random public safety inspections to ensure that all kindergartens have made sufficient efforts to safeguard children’s safety within the school perimeter. At the same time, other supplementary implementations such as scheduled school bus inspections, roadside inspections, seminars for school bus drivers and attendants, safety drills at all kindergartens will be held to ensure the safety of kindergarten teachers and students.
4. Enhance young children’s physical capability by developing children’s interest in exercise and exercise habits
In order to encourage children to cultivate a healthy habit of exercising at a young age, the Department will develop a series of fun and interesting physical fitness games intended for kindergarten children and encourage kindergartens to design similar fitness games that involve joint participation of students and their parents so as to promote fitness games to students’ families.
5. Increase the depth of early childhood language learning by actively promoting the learning of the mother tongue, Mandarin and integrated learning of foreign languages
The Department advocates a pre-school language learning policy which begins with the learning of mother tongue, then Mandarin, then foreign languages. This is based on the City Government's “One Axis & Two Orbits Learning Policy” to promote Mandarin and native language as well as cultivate multi-interests toward foreign languages.
6. Promote parent-child reading to inspire the interests of shared reading by parents and pre-school children
The Department develops teachers’ competency in children’s literature, skills in integrating reading materials into daily teaching activities, and recognition for the importance of parent-child reading so as to inspire young children’s reading interest. It also promotes parent-child reading activities to enhance interactions between kindergartens and communities. Development of parents and children’s interest in reading will help build a harmonized parent-child relationship.
7. Advocate creativity in preschool education to improve future competitiveness
The Department sets up the “Taipei City Kindergarten
Teachers’ Creative Teaching Center” to construct a creative
learning environment for preschool children and guide them to develop independent thinking and problem solving abilities to be adaptable to future challenges and to improve the nation’s competitiveness.
8. Administer assistance programs for pre-school education to improve the quality of pre-school education
In line with the Ministry of Education’s policy in preschool education, the Department assists premium kindergartens to develop their specialization and share their teaching experience in order to build a group of model kindergartens. The Department offers support to kindergartens to enhance teaching quality.
9. Nurture children’s daily routines to help them build sound character
In order to help children cultivate good conduct and build character to prepare them for all aspects of life, we shall start with their daily routines to help them shape the proper character and right attitudes for life through actual activities.
10. Implement relevant preparatory works in conjunction
with the Integrated Kindergarten-Nursery School Policy
The “Integrated Kindergarten-Nursery School Policy”
is implemented by the Central Government in the
hope of integrating kindergartens and nursery schools to jointly assume the responsibilities for children’s education and healthcare development to construct a comprehensive and interweaved network for child education and childcare. However, due to dissenting views on the Child Care Act (draft) from partial nursery organizations, coupled with the fact that Article 13 of the Legislative Yuan Exercise of Powers Law stipulates that no law will be reviewed once the relevant legislative term is over, the Ministry of Education is currently working on the draft’s revision. At the same time, Taipei City Government is also actively involved in various preparatory works for the integrated policy in coordination with the Ministry of Education’s policies.

●Future Prospects

1. Establish outstanding management guidelines for kindergarten administration to follow
2. Reinforce quality teaching training for kindergarten teachers to improve the effectiveness of children’s learning
3. Build a database for children’s physical fitness performance to facilitate planning of relevant policies and the development of physical fitness education for children
4. Create an excellent learning environment for children, one that respects creativity and encourages sharing

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To inspire the preschool students by playing

To inspire the preschool students by playing

To inspire the preschool students by playing