Press Releases
New “Teach” Framework to Enhance the Quality of the Teaching Force
More opportunities to deepen teachers’ professional expertise and stronger support for their work-life needs
To promote greater professionalism and excellence in the Teaching Service, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will introduce the “TEACH” framework (TEACH). At the core of the framework will be efforts to strengthen the professional culture of the teaching fraternity, while we continue to support teachers’ aspirations and work-life needs. This was announced by Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, at the Committee of Supply Debate on 7 March 2011.
Teachers are at the heart of delivering a quality education. They need to continually build up and refresh their knowledge and expertise to better prepare our students for a future that is constantly and rapidly evolving. MOE is committed to supporting teachers as they strive to deepen their professional expertise on an ongoing basis. Building on the foundation of the earlier GROW Packages1, TEACH will further ongoing efforts to:
- Strengthen Teacher professionalism;
- Deepen Engagement with teachers;
- Fulfil teachers’ Aspirations;
- Enhance teachers’ Career opportunities; and
- Achieve Harmony in work and life.
Strengthening Teacher Professionalism
The Academy of Singapore Teachers (“the Academy”) has been set up to support and foster a teacher-driven culture of professional excellence, innovation and collaboration. Through dedicated Subject Chapters2 and Professional Learning Communities3, the aim is for the teaching community as a whole to collectively upgrade the professional expertise of fellow teachers.
As part of this ongoing movement to shape a distinctive professional culture and identity, the Academy is also supporting the teaching community in its ground-up initiative to articulate the Ethos of the Teaching Profession. This is a set of shared values and beliefs that encapsulate the intrinsic motivations of teachers to serve and lead with professionalism and pride.
Deepening Engagement of Teachers
MOE is committed to delivering high quality human resource (HR) services to our schools and teachers. Principals will be assisted by a dedicated HR Partner who will provide consultancy services on strategic HR issues.
At the same time, we will have multiple touch points to strengthen engagement with teachers such as via the new HR online resource portal, administrative managers in schools and a one-stop call centre to provide HR advice.
Fulfilling Aspirations of Teachers
Beyond facilitating the deepening of teachers’ professional expertise through the efforts of the Academy, MOE will also do this by providing more opportunities for good teachers to pursue further studies. This will allow teachers to upgrade their knowledge and skills for the classroom or deepen their specialist knowledge to lead improvements to the system.
Teachers pursuing a part-time Master’s degree will be given the added option to take on part-time teaching while pursuing their studies. Teachers can also look forward to a new one-off monetary award of $4,000 upon completing their part-time Master’s degree in an approved course of study. In addition, MOE will introduce a new full-time Postgraduate Award, as an additional pathway to encourage teachers to pursue further studies in an area of relevance to their career in MOE.
MOE will also provide more avenues for non-graduate teachers to upgrade. Additional full-time Advanced Diploma Programmes will be developed at the National Institute of Education (NIE). Teachers who do well in the diploma course could go on to pursue a degree programme at NIE. High-performing non-graduate teachers can also apply for a new Undergraduate Study Award to pursue a full-time undergraduate degree in a relevant educational discipline. More manpower resources will be provided to schools to enable more teachers to pursue their professional and academic upgrading efforts.
By 2020, almost all teachers will be graduates and we expect the number of teachers with postgraduate degrees to double from 10% today to 20%. From 2015 onwards, we aim to encourage 800 teachers to pursue full and part-time postgraduate upgrading each year, up from the 500 today. These teachers, with a combination of academic and professional expertise, will be able to further deepen the expertise of the rest of the teaching community through the efforts of the Academy.
Enhancing Teachers’ Career Opportunities
Teachers can look forward to more opportunities to assume middle-level leadership positions with the creation of 1,500 more leadership positions4 in schools. These leadership positions are not confined to teaching subjects but also holistic student development areas such as citizenship and character education, pastoral care and co-curricular activities (CCAs).
More leadership and specialist positions will also be created in MOE HQ as part of MOE’s efforts to expand organisational capabilities and deepen expertise in the education domain to better support our teachers in our schools. All these will expand the advancement pathways for teachers and enrich their career experience.
Achieving Harmony in Work and Life
We will provide greater flexibility in work arrangements for teachers to better balance between their family and career needs. MOE will extend the part-time teaching scheme to teachers pursuing part-time studies. Each school will also receive additional teachers and resources to support teachers going for part-time teaching.
Teachers who need to go on no-pay leave due to childcare commitments or further studies will have the option to take up flexible school-based employment, including teaching duties or ad-hoc projects. This will allow them to keep abreast of the latest developments in their schools.
As part of the overall enhanced career management plan for teachers, schools will implement work management guidelines for the allocation of classroom, co-curricular and school duties. Schools will also continue to implement good work management practices. These initiatives will support work-life harmony and ensure that teachers’ work remains manageable so that they are able to deliver education of a higher quality.
Summary
The “TEACH” framework is summarised in the following diagram. The key initiatives under TEACH will be implemented in phases beginning from the second half of 2011.
Related Media
Footnotes:
- Please refer to http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2007/pr20071228.htm and http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2006/pr20060904.htm for the press releases on the GROW Packages.↩
- These are professional networks of teachers focused on enhancing subject mastery and content knowledge.↩
- The number of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) has grown from 51 in 2009 to 272 in 2011. Please refer to Academy of Singapore Teachers’ Website for more information on PLCs and Subject Chapters.↩
- This will include key personnel positions such as Heads of Department, Subject Heads and Level Heads.↩