How to become a preschool education teacher
Official title: Preschool education teacher
Also called: Beginning infant educator, Child care teacher, Early childhood educator, Early years educator, Early years teacher, Kindergarten teacher, Nursery school teacher, Play school teacher, Pre-primary education teacher, Pre-primary school teacher, Preschool educator, Preschool lead teacher
Preschool education teacher promotes the holistic development of children below primary school age. He/she creates a secure and quality learning environment for the children through nurturing trusting and respectful relationships with them. He/she enriches children’s learning by co-designing and implementing a developmentally and culturally appropriate curricula, while effectively integrating innovative teaching and learning practices.
Main tasks
- Planning and organising individual and group activities designed to facilitate the development of children’s motor skills, cooperative and social skills, confidence and understanding
- Promoting language development through story-telling, role-play, songs, rhymes and informal conversations and discussions
- Leading children in activities that provide opportunities for creative expression through the media of art, dramatic play, music and physical fitness
- Observing children in order to evaluate progress and to detect signs of developmental, emotional or health related problems with parents
- Observing and assessing nutritional health, welfare and safety needs of students and identifying factors which may impede students’ progress
- Supervising children’s activities to ensure safety and resolve conflicts
- Guiding and assisting children in the development of proper eating, dressing and toilet habits
- Discussing progress or problems of children with parents and other staff members and identifying appropriate actions and referrals to other services
Ways in
- Polytechnic or ITE: ITE course (Nitec or Higher Nitec). Related ITE courses: Higher Nitec in Early Childhood Education. Peernovo matched these from course names; ITE does not publish which jobs each course leads to.; Polytechnic diploma. Related diplomas: Diploma in Early Childhood Development & Education (Ngee Ann Polytechnic). Peernovo matched these from course names; polytechnics do not publish which jobs each course leads to.
- Licence or registration: Educators in kindergartens and childcare centres must be certified by the Early Childhood Development Agency. Each certification level has its own professional, academic and language requirements and sets the age group you may teach. Law: Early Childhood Development Centres Act 2017. Regulator: Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) (https://www.ecda.gov.sg).
Pay · Outlook · AI and this job
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
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Questions people ask
How do I become a preschool education teacher?
Ways in include: ITE course (Nitec or Higher Nitec); Polytechnic diploma.
Will AI change the work of a preschool education teacher?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Updated 4 October 2026