Policy on Optimal Class Sizes Given Increasingly Complex Challenges Faced by Teachers

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Elysa Chen, Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC

Question

To asked the Minister for Education what is the Ministry's current position on optimal class sizes given recent findings that teachers face increasing complexity in their roles, including supporting students with diverse learning needs, mental health challenges and special educational needs.

Response

1. The Ministry of Education's (MOE's) approach for class sizes is guided by the learning needs of our students. More teaching resources are deployed for students with greater needs and hence, smaller class sizes for such students because they need more support and scaffolding.
2. Let me give you a few examples. Primary 1 and 2 students learn in class sizes of around 30. Why? Because they have just started their educational journey and we want to be able to better support them in that transition.
3. TRANsition Support for InTegration (TRANSIT) classes are conducted in even smaller class sizes of up to 10. Why? Because TRANSIT classes help our Primary 1 students who are identified with social and behavioural needs to develop foundational self-management skills when they start school. In fact, recently, I sat in one of these TRANSIT classes to see how they carry out the approach, pedagogy as well as socio-emotional learning.
4. Another example is the learning support programme, conducted in pull-out classes of around eight to 10. Why? Because this is a specialised early intervention programme in our schools for lower primary students who need additional help with the English language.
5. School-based dyslexia remediation programme, conducted in classes of four to six students. Why? Because with these special educational needs, we want to better support them, because overcoming some of these challenges or managing this challenge like dyslexia, allows them to access support for many other subjects.
6. With Full Subject-Based Banding, our secondary school students attend different subject classes of between 20 and 40 students, depending on their learning needs and the nature of the subject.
7. Additionally, schools may deploy two form teachers for classes on a needs-basis, where school resourcing allows.
8. Sir, class sizes are not the only way we support students with diverse learning needs. Schools also have school counsellors to strengthen the social-emotional skills of our students and special educational needs officers to provide learning and behavioural support for our students who need it. We have grown the number of trained school counsellors and special educational needs officers in schools from around 800 to 1,300 over the past decade. We will continue to study the effectiveness of our approach, including on class sizes and are prepared to adjust our strategies where necessary to create conducive learning environments for our students.