"Kidz Hideout" After-school Support Adds Fun to Learning
In the past two years, 33 out of every 10,000 students in Singapore have been absent from school for long periods of time. To tackle this problem, an enhancement plan was launched by the Ministry of Education to provide comprehensive assistance to students through the allocation of school resources and community assistance network. Starting from January 2022, 20 Primary 4 and 5 students from North View Primary School have been going to Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre every Wednesday and Friday to participate in various activities arranged by the Centre, making their after-school learning more interesting.
Every Wednesday and Friday after school, 20 Primary 5 students would come to Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre to spend their time after school. This is "Kidz Hideout", a collaboration between North View Primary School and Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre.
To solve the problem of student absenteeism, the Ministry of Education of Singapore has launched an enhancement plan to strengthen students' after-school learning support through the school's resource allocation and community assistance network.
Junice Ong, Year Head of Middle Primary: So most of the students who have been encouraged to participate in this programme are those whose parents are busy working or have more complex family backgrounds. And these students may exhibit some behavioural issues. So if their needs are unattended to, then in the long run, what will happen is they will have difficulty being engaged in school.
Originally, he was lively and playful in class, but after getting the paintbrush, he could sit down and paint quietly. The various activities have been enjoyable for the children.
Ian Ng, Participant of Kidz Hideout: (Previously, when you still haven't joined this programme, what did you usually do?) Play computer. We can meet our friends, we can do arts and crafts, we can play together.
Christie Tan, Participant of Kidz Hideout: I always look forward to coming on Wednesdays, I have a lot of fun in this programme.
Sharifah, Youth Outreach Officer: Primarily, we want whatever enrichment programmes that we plan to be something that they can take away something from, to learn something from. We try and find enrichment programmes that we feel they would otherwise not get the opportunity to be exposed to.
Junice Ong, Year Head of Middle Primary: During the enrichment activities, values such as responsibility and resilience are consistently emphasised, and the students will then be able to benefit from them.
Extending from the school to the community, the aim is to help more children regain their focus on life and learning so that children can fully develop their potential in this Kidz Hideout.
