PM Lee Hsien Loong has started his National Day Rally 2017 speech in Malay and Mandarin (youtu.be/a8wbp53Ymqc).

English dub and sign language interpretation of these speeches are available here (youtu.be/JPQZb0AkrDU).

Pemerintah akan menambah tempat di prasekolah dan mempertingkat kemahiran guru-guru. #ndrsg

Kencing manis satu masalah kesihatan yang serius. Hampir 20 peratus orang Melayu menghidapinya.

Kita boleh mengelakkan atau mengawal kencing manis dengan menjaga pemakanan dan bersenam.

Masyarakat Melayu harus merebut peluang untuk tingkatkan kemahiran melalui SkillsFuture.

政府将从三方面着手提升学前教育：1）增加更多的托儿所和幼儿园名额；2）提升学前教育的素质，并让孩子们从小打好双语的基础；3）加强师资的培训，以吸引更多人加入这个专业。

糖尿病患者逐年增加，60岁以上的国人，每10人就有3人患有糖尿病。病情一旦失控，就会出现严重的并发症。糖尿病在本地普遍、严重的原因是因为许多人以为只有老年人才会患病，及初期症状不明显，所以不知道自己已患病。总理建议大家定期做身体健康检查，保持饮食均衡、多做运动。

智慧国就是通过现代科技让全体人民都能受惠。打造智慧国的目标之一是通过现代科技改善年长者的日常生活。新加坡具备实现智慧国愿景的条件, 也培养了不少科技人才。总理希望企业和政府部门结合科技和服务，提高生活素质，使更多人受益。

Having my dinner now, before my English speech at 8.15pm. Spoke about diabetes, so thought it would be good to have healthier olive rice, with seafood hor fun and bok choy on the side. :) – LHL

PM Lee Hsien Loong is now delivering his English speech at the National Day Rally 2017. You can watch the speech live on the PMO YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/a8wbp53Ymqc.

PM Lee: Tonight I would like to take a step back from immediate priorities & discuss 3 issues that in the longer term will be important to our prosperity and well being:

1) Building up preschools
2) Fighting diabetes
3) Making Singapore a #SmartNation

These are what we need to do now, to build our future: start right, stay healthy, and live smart.

START RIGHT - PRESCHOOL

5 years ago, the Government moved decisively, to build up our preschools, and transform the whole sector. We created almost 50,000 more childcare and kindergarten places, especially in young estates like Punggol and Sengkang.

We increased subsidies to make preschools more affordable, and raised the standards of Anchor Operators, like PCF Kindergartens (now Sparkle Tots), and NTUC’s My First Skool.

MOE has also started to run MOE Kindergartens.

Finally, to oversee the whole sector, we set up the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), under MSF.

To take preschools to the next level, we’ll do 3 things:

1. Create more places – In the next 5 years, we will create an additional 40,000 new places, bringing the total number to about 200,000.

2. Improve the quality of preschool education for ages 5 to 6 (K1s & K2s) – We will increase MOE Kindergartens from 15 to 50 in the next 5 years. This will enable MOE to influence and uplift the quality of the whole sector.

3. Upgrade the preschool profession to attract good teachers – We will set up a new National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC), which will be like NIE for preschool teachers and carers. It will provide the full range of diploma and certificate programmes for preschool professionals.

We are emphasising preschools to achieve a broader social purpose. Access to affordable, quality preschools will help level the playing field for young children. If we get this right, we will foster social mobility, and sustain a fair and just society.

Government is investing heavily in young children. Since 2012, we have doubled our spending on the preschool sector. We will double spending again over the next 5 years, to $1.7B in 2022.