30 March 2007

More teachers promoted with enhanced career structure

1. There is a bumper crop of 10,861 promotees in the Education Service in 2007 (compared with 4,257 in 2006) due to the introduction of an enhanced career structure for teachers and the larger teaching force. The enhanced career structure is part of the ‘GROW’ (Growth of Education Officers, through better Recognition, Opportunities, and seeing to their W ell-being) package announced by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education, in September 2006.

   Table 1: Profile of promotees in year 2007 promotion exercise

   Profile of promotees	Total
   Principals / Vice Principals	268
   Master Teachers / Senior Teachers	215
   Heads of Dept / Subject Heads / Level Heads	1,968
   Teachers	7,920
   HQ Officers ' Others	490
   Total	10,861

2. As this is the first year of implementation of the new career structure, there is a backlog of teachers who would have been eligible for promotion earlier had the new grades been in existence.  The Ministry has decided to undertake a one-time exercise to ensure that all teachers who are eligible to move on to these new grades do so in 2007.  Going forward, the number of promotions for Education Officers is expected to stabilise at around 6,000 a year.
3. A total of 5,613 Education Officers benefited from the enhanced career opportunities under GROW - 5,411 were promoted into the GEO 1A3/2A3 grades, 200 Heads of Department into the SEO1A1 grade, and 2 Master Teachers were appointed as Level 2 Master Teachers, a new apex appointment, and also promoted into the SEO1A2 grade. (See Annex for grade structure of the Education Service.)

   Background on “GROW” Package

4. In September 2006, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Finance, announced the ‘GROW’ package for Education Officers. The enhanced career opportunities announced under the ‘GROW’ package (Growth of Education Officers, through better Recognition, Opportunities, and seeing to their W ell-being) included the following:
   • Introduction of new career grade of General Education Officer (GEO) 1A3/ GEO 2A3 for classroom teachers;
   • Promotion for more Heads of Department (HODs) to Senior Education Officer (SEO) 1A1 grade; and
   • Introduction of Master Teacher Level 2 (MTT2) as the new apex position for the Teaching Track.