3.      The new Master Teacher appointment and the larger number of Senior Teacher posts will provide more advancement opportunities for deserving teachers. Deserving teachers will be rewarded and recognised for what they do best - which is teaching in the classrooms and mentoring and guiding younger teachers. This will provide for greater stability and excellence in teaching in our schools, hence improving the overall quality of education.

Master Teachers

4.      Master Teachers will operate beyond the school, at the cluster level. Master Teachers are experienced expert teachers whose role will be to help develop teaching excellence through mentoring and demonstrating good teaching practice and model lessons. Their contributions will go beyond their classrooms and schools and will extend to helping other teachers in the cluster to teach better.

5.      The Ministry of Education (MOE) plans to eventually have 3 to 4 Master Teacher posts per cluster, or a total of about 160 Master Teacher posts nationwide. Master Teachers will be appointed on renewable 3-year terms.

Senior Teachers

6.      Senior Teachers are good experienced teachers who serve as mentors and role models to younger teachers within their schools, sharing with them their teaching expertise and content knowledge.

7.      MOE will be doubling the number of Senior Teacher posts in schools. With the increase, there will be typically 1 Senior Teacher post for every 5 classroom teachers. A typical primary school will have up to 11 Senior Teacher positions, while a typical secondary school will have up to 9 Senior Teacher positions.

Accreditation Framework

8.      To ensure that the most deserving teachers are promoted to Master Teachers and Senior Teachers, MOE will be putting in place a formal accreditation framework. Teachers progressing to the higher levels of Master Teacher and Senior Teacher must meet certain threshold criteria in terms of skills, knowledge, performance and competencies. The criteria are based on the roles of Master Teacher and Senior Teacher that MOE has worked out in consultation with teachers, Principals and Cluster Superintendents. (Please refer to Annex A for a write-up on the roles of the Master Teacher and Senior Teacher.)

9.      Candidates for Master Teacher and Senior Teacher appointments must demonstrate that they have strong teaching skills and subject knowledge. Candidates will have to go through an accreditation process, which will assess their professional expertise in developing their pupils holistically, fostering positive relations with community and parents, contribution to school organisation and development, and most importantly professional development.

10.     The accreditation for Master Teacher and Senior Teacher appointments is a rigorous process, which comprises the submission of a professional portfolio, teacher observations and selection panel interviews. As part of the accreditation process, candidates will have to prepare a professional portfolio to document evidence of having met the accreditation standards.

11.     These enhancements to the Teaching Track - the creation of more senior teaching positions and the introduction of a rigorous accreditation framework, will allow the Ministry to build up teaching excellence and uplift the quality of our Education Service.

ANNEX A

The Senior Teacher

The Senior Teacher is a role model for teachers in the school, with expertise in teaching pedagogy, pupil guidance and learning.

The Senior Teacher is able to create a positive learning environment for his pupils. Besides imparting knowledge and skills, he inculcates in pupils desirable values and attitudes and provides for their character development.

The Senior Teacher engages in continual learning and guides other teachers in their professional development. His role is to serve as a mentor to teachers in the school, sharing with them his experience and skills in teaching and nurturing of pupils as well as subject knowledge. The Senior Teacher also helps induct trainee and beginning teachers in the school.

The Senior Teacher leads in introducing new programmes (eg integrated curriculum/co-curricular activities) to extend learning of pupils in the school. He also participates in efforts to develop new initiatives and programmes to help foster positive relations with parents and the community.

The Master Teacher