As a preschool that offers an enriching environment that emphasises strong immersion in Mandarin from Pre-Nursery to Kindergarten 2, ELFA Serangoon & Pandan Valley gives its children the opportunity to benchmark their proficiency in the language.

For instance, in November 2018, our ELFA children from kindergarten 2 took the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) Level 2 and passed. 60 percent of the children who have taken the Test have done very well by achieving more than 90 percent score. YCT is an international standardised Chinese language test that examines non-native primary and secondary school students’ ability to apply Chinese language in their studies and daily lives. Administered and promoted worldwide by Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters, YCT consists of two separate written and oral tests.

Congratulations to our 2018 K2 graduates who passed YCT with flying colors. We are certain that they have set a strong foundation in Mandarin during their time in ELFA Preschool.

This Test dovetails nicely with the ELFA preschool curriculum, which has been designed to help accelerate the acquisition of Chinese aural and oral competency as well as reading skills as part of its Chinese-focused bilingual curriculum.

At ELFA, Chinese serves as the language of the course content, including mathematics. The narrative-themed curriculum meets the requirements of the Singapore Ministry of Education’s six major areas of early childhood development, cognitive processes, and mother-tongue learning goals.