The Impact of Singapore's Financial Investment Strategy in Preschool Education on the Teacher-Student Ratio of Different Types of Kindergartens and Its Implications for China

Abstract

In recent years, Singapore's "fair and high-quality" oriented financial investment mechanism for preschool education has attracted much attention. This article takes Singapore's financial investment strategy in preschool education as the research object, exploring the impact of its differentiated investment mechanism on the teacher-student ratio of kindergartens of different natures. Research has found that Singapore adopts a three-in-one financial investment mechanism of "classified funding, performance binding, and dynamic adjustment", and formulates tiered funding standards according to the nature of kindergartens, linking the achievement of teacher-student ratio standards with financial subsidies. In contrast, there are problems with China's financial investment in preschool education, such as "heavy emphasis on public institutions over private ones" and "heavy emphasis on hardware over manpower", resulting in a relatively high and unstable teacher-student ratio in inclusive private kindergartens. Based on this, this article proposes to dynamically match financial investment with the nature of park operation, education quality, and "basic subsidies+performance rewards", establish a special subsidy fund for teacher-student ratio tilted towards private inclusive parks, and clarify the lower limit of personnel expenditure in preschool education funds. This study draws on the experience of Singapore and is of great significance for China to achieve the goal of "inclusive supply and high-quality services".