The MENDAKI Education Symposium is an annual collaboration between MENDAKI and the National Institute of Education. Its objective is to inspire and empower education practitioners, early childhood educators and parents through strategies for teaching and engaging with young children.

“Nurturing from Young: Foundations for Lifelong Learning in Post-COVID World” was the theme of this year’s event – presented over five webinars held between 22 and 24 July 2020. The National Institute of Education fielded a total of six speakers, who imparted their knowledge and best practices on the following topics:

• How do we teach our children to be bilingual at home and in school? By Dr Beth O’Brien, Principal Research Scientist and Head of Early and Middle Childhood Research, Centre for Research in Childhood Development, and Dr Viniti Vaish, Associate Professor, English Language and Literature Academic Group
• How do we improve the quality of teacher-child interactions in the preschool classroom? By Dr Nirmala Karuppiah, Head of Education, Centre for Research in Child Development
• How do we help children feel safe and ready to learn? By Dr Anne Rifkin, Senior Research Scientist and Head of Infancy and Early Childhood Research, Centre for Research in Childhood Development
• How do we help children develop self-control skills? By Dr Ng Ee Lynn, Research Scientist, Centre for Research in Childhood Development
• How can Neuroscience (knowledge) contribute to learning and education? By Dr Aishah Abdul Rahman, Lecturer (Research Scientist), Office of Education Research

The webinars drew participation from preschool professionals, primary school teachers, academics and policymakers in Singapore and overseas. Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State for National Development and Manpower and Deputy Chairman of Yayasan MENDAKI, was present at the opening session to greet the speakers and participants.

“The post-COVID world will require us to adapt to the new normal, and this means changing the way we impart knowledge and nurture our young ones to be ready for school. MENDAKI Education Symposium seeks to facilitate discussions with early childhood educators, practitioners and parents to create this ecosystem of knowledge sharing and bring forth issues, findings and developments. MENDAKI’s collaboration with partners and agencies is critical to uplift the early education sector together,” Mr Zaqy said.