Speeches
Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, at the 2009 MOE Promotion Ceremony on Thursday, 9 April 2009, 3.30pm, at The Suntec Singapore Ballroom
Ms Grace Fu Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education
Mr Masagos Zulkifli Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Home Affairs
Mrs Tan Ching Yee Permanent Secretary
Ms Yeoh Chee Yan Second Permanent Secretary
Ms Ho Peng Director-General of Education
Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to be with you on this special occasion. It’s a happy day as we extend our warmest congratulations to the 7,067 MOE officers who have earned their promotions. They comprise 6,854 Education Officers, 39 Allied Educators and 174 Executive and Administrative Staff. 1,043 are in Superscale and Senior Education Officer grades. Promotions for individual officers, of course, recognise their hard work and reward their good performance, but there is a deeper significance to this annual ceremony. Collectively, it signals MOE’s commitment to enhance career options for teacher and support staff. We recognise that in order to deliver a world-class education system, we must invest in our teachers and Principals to develop them professionally and ensure a continued succession of capable and committed leaders.
A Change of Guard
This month also marks a new chapter for the Education Service, with Ms Ho Peng taking over from Ms Seah Jiak Choo as Director-General of Education. We have benefited greatly from Ms Seah’s steadfast leadership, and I am glad that she has agreed to continue as an advisor to the Ministry. Most of you would also be familiar with Ms Ho Peng. She has served in various capacities in our schools and MOE HQ, most recently as Director for Curriculum Planning and Development. I have full confidence that the entire teaching workforce will support her wholeheartedly and that Ho Peng will steer the Education Service to greater heights.
Growing the Education Service
With good teachers and Principals, the Education Service has grown from strength to strength. We must not let up on efforts to bring in good quality young teachers to fill the ranks. Five years ago, we announced plans to expand our teaching force from 24,000 in 2004 to 30,000 in 2010. Today, we have more than 29,300 trained teachers and are on track to meet the 2010 target. Our teachers are also now more qualified. More than 3 out of every 4 teachers today are graduates and we have various ways to support those who seek to attain higher qualifications while in service.
In this economic downturn, our plans to step up recruitment are showing results. We normally recruit around 2,300 teachers a year but this year, we increased it to 3,000 teachers. It’s only April, but we have received close to 10,000 applications. From these, some 1,500 candidates have already been recruited. To help mid-career entrants, we also introduced Project Classroom so that they could experience teaching first-hand and find out if they are suitable for this vocation. We do this to maintain our selection standards and keep to stringent shortlisting processes and rigorous interviews.
We are also attracting good candidates to the Allied Educators Scheme. To date, we have recruited some 380 allied educators under the new scheme and on track to achieve our target of 680 new allied educators this year. As we grow the pool of allied educators, we will also put in place a competency-based appraisal framework and professional development schemes customised to their unique roles. We have also recruited more than 130 executive and administrative staff this year.
Developing the Career Tracks of the Education Service
The three career tracks of the Education Service offer our teachers, educational specialists, and school leaders good career prospects, and provide them with different pathways to meet their professional aspirations. On the Leadership Track, we have built a robust pipeline of future school leaders who can steer our schools towards excellence. Last December, 50 new Principals were appointed. This year, 58 Principals will be promoted in grade. We are also expanding the number of Senior Specialists, who apply their deep expertise in various professional areas to strengthen the quality of our education system. 3 Lead Specialists and 28 new Senior Specialists have been appointed in January this year, bringing the total to 138 Senior Specialists. This year, 41 Senior Specialists will also be promoted in grade.
As part of the GROW package in 2006, we introduced the Master Teacher Level 2 position as the pinnacle appointment on the Teaching Track. This year, Ms Connie Seng and Mdm Ng Tai Cheen have been appointed as Master Teacher Level 2, joining Ms Nora Teo and Mdm Aw Wai Lin at the apex of the Teaching Track. These four excellent teachers are exemplary models of Master teachers.
Ms Connie Seng is a role model for English Language teachers. She has designed lesson packages, conducted numerous workshops and participated in the curriculum design for the teaching of the English Language. She has also groomed many Senior Teachers and partnered the National Library Board to develop reading programmes for primary school students. Connie has also shared her expertise in story telling and assessment tools for reading skills at international conferences.
Mdm Ng Tai Cheen is known for her expertise in teaching the Chinese Language to students from English-speaking backgrounds. She takes a leading role in mentoring her fellow Chinese Language teachers through action research and sharing sessions. Tai Cheen is currently spearheading a project on ICT-based teaching for the Chinese Language in primary schools. She also exemplifies the spirit of life-long learning, having recently completed her Master of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature. I congratulate Connie and Tai Cheen on their appointment as Master Teacher Level 2 and their promotion to the SEO 1A2 substantive grade. And I look forward to seeing more outstanding teachers rise to this key appointment.
We have also strengthened the bench of the Teaching Track. Four more Master Teachers have been appointed this year and 71 Senior Teachers are amongst the 623 officers promoted to the SEO 1 substantive grade. In total, we now have 23 Master Teachers and 1,029 Senior Teachers who add depth to our teaching force and can uplift teaching competencies across our schools by imparting their expertise and experience to younger teachers.
Today, almost 80% of Education Officers are on the Teaching Track. As we expand the teaching force, we will find ways to further enhance the Teaching Track by grooming more outstanding teachers into Senior Teachers and Master Teachers. We will need more expert practitioners to help lead the professional development of their colleagues.
Initiatives to Enhance the Education Service
Let me use this opportunity to also report on the various initiatives to attract and retain teachers, such as Edu-Pac in 2001, GROW in 2006 and GROW 2.01 in 2007.
First, over 94% of our Education Officers have opted into the new Education Scheme of Service (2008). Secondly, new initiatives like the Professional Development Packages, Masters and Doctoral Study Leave, and Teachers’ Work Attachment have been well received. About 1,000 teachers are currently making use of these schemes to pursue higher degrees. I encourage schools to continue supporting their teachers’ professional development, forging a culture where we constantly seek to improve teaching and learning in the classroom.
Thirdly, we have expanded career opportunities for Education Officers who are interested in specialist work, as well as those who want to continue contributing towards education even after their retirement. Under the enhanced Senior Specialist Track, teachers can apply for provisional senior specialist positions in MOE HQ through the annual open posting exercise. It also makes good sense to leverage on the vast experience and knowledge of our older teachers. The Ministry has therefore systematically re-employed retired officers as adjunct teachers in schools. There are currently over 1,500 adjunct teachers who complement our regular teaching force.
Fourthly, the Ministry remains committed to helping teachers achieve work-life harmony. Schools have adopted flexible working arrangements like the Part-time Teaching Scheme, and we have seen the number of part-time teachers increase from 300 in 2007 to 440 in 2008, or on average 1-2 part-time teachers in each school. MOE has also enhanced maternity and childcare leave schemes to provide greater support to teachers with young families.
A Culture of Professional Pride and Excellence
While MOE has put in place many initiatives to enhance the attractiveness of the Education Service, professional learning is best driven by the profession itself and not by administrators or external stakeholders. Ultimately, this is your profession and you must chart its course. As we teach our students, teachers themselves must be self-directed learners and take ownership of their professional growth. I understand from DGE that indeed school leaders are engaged in studying ways to further develop a culture of professional excellence as part of the shared vision for the Education Service.
To strive for excellence, our teachers should form their own communities of practice (COP) where knowledge and practice can be shared and built upon. These COP can research, experiment, document and share new methods of teaching and learning. Teachers are already forming their own Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), and MOE will support the growth of these PLCs. The challenge going forward is to consider how PLCs can evolve into teacher-led structures that can drive the professional development of the wider teaching fraternity. This drive toward professional excellence, I believe, will be the key enabler for our 21st century teaching force.
Conclusion
Educating our people is Singapore’s greatest investment and strength. We need teachers who are committed to nurturing and inspiring their students, both as individual educators and as a collective fraternity. We also need inspiring school leaders and a dedicated corps of allied educators and executive and administrative staff who can work together as a team to deliver quality education in our schools. It is by focussing on the quality of our people, and supporting their quest for professional excellence, that we can forge ahead in these challenging times and deliver a holistic education to every child.
In conclusion, let me once again congratulate all the officers who have been promoted this year. Keep up the excellent work!