For instance, school C has no visually impaired children in pre-primary class.
Table 4 shows the education specialization of pre-primary class teachers namely teachers with general education, teachers specialized in special educational needs, and teachers with early childhood education.
It also shows structural deficit in the special education teachers training as reported by the study informant response below: Table 4 Pre-primary class teachers education specialization.
The researcher visited one of the six inclusive pre-primary schools, (school "E" as indicated in Table 3) and found three children in pre-primary class with special educational needs studying with their peers.
This fact is justified by the data summarized in Table 3 which indicates that only one of the pre-primary class teachers from the sampled schools had specialization in special educational needs.
This fact is justified by the data summarized in Table 4 which indicates that only one out of the 10 pre-primary class teachers from the sampled schools had specialization in special educational needs.
Although the government had previously experimented with the provision of a 1-year pre-primary class within primary schools between the late 70s and early 90s, 2014 was the watershed year as it marked a prominent milestone in the evolutionary journey of the Singapore preschool landscape with the establishment of the first five MOE-run kindergartens.
In 2012, the disparity between urban and rural areas was the smallest - the proportion of urban and rural primary school new students who had received ECE (including pre-primary class) was 97.67% and 92.03% respectively, with a difference about 5% (see Table 8).
Thus, what was to be done by the heads of primary schools, special or early childhood education officers/teachers in the municipality or pre-primary class in identifying and then providing appropriate education and other programmes to children with special educational needs was never officially communicated to them.
In the study, twenty-eight (28) participants were involved including ten pre-primary class teachers (from both public and privately owned schools), ten heads of schools (both public and private), one early childhood education officer, one special educational needs officer, 1 head of special school, and five parents as indicated in Table 1.
In both Study 1 (n = 165) and Study 2 (n = 205), the school preparedness, and the literacy and mathematics attainment of first graders with different preschool experiences (kindergarten, separate pre-primary class, "sitting-in" a Grade 1 class, no preschool experience) were assessed.
