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Originally Posted by Unregistered
The whole system is just so stuck and people just can’t move up the leadership track so easily anymore.
Schools have merged or some merging soon, which means even fewer leadership positions and excess teachers in the system.
And then there’s that excuse of not having enough exposure when identifying officers to be VPs, but the problem is there aren’t many KP positions in open posting exercise for that fluidity in movement across schools, unless we consider doing cross-level deployment.
Not everyone can be suited or are successful in adapting to cross-level deployment too.
There are many HODs who have cleared VP interviews but still stuck as HOD coz there just isn’t positions available for them. Unless in the next few years, suddenly there are many retiring VPs and Ps (which is even harder given the recent rise in retirement age announced), everyone else down the chain would just have to be stagnated in their current state.
Worse still, now even VPs are identified & centrally managed by HR; no longer do Cluster Sups or school principals have a say in recommending HODs to HR for the role.
But how would HR know the officers well enough to determine their suitability to be VPs and above?
This also could suggest again that the scholars are gonna be put up for the roles first, leaving other very outstanding high potential non-scholars or other officers hardly any chance at all.
Which also means again promotion rate is stuck, and the poor young teachers in service and who have aspirations may find it ‘unattractive’ to stay in service.
While many of us join the service for the love of nurturing the generations of students to come and making a difference, this shouldn’t be something that the ministry takes for granted; and it’s perfectly normal to have aspirations so that we continue to embrace challenges, learn new things and grow our competencies too.
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Thanks for the insight. I'm a current HOD in a primary school, and cannot agree more with what has been mentioned here. I know of outstanding HODs who remain as HODs and never got the chance to attend Vp Interview. Out of my cohort of
NIE mates, only one of us is a current Vp appointed at 36 years old. And you guessed it right - he is an overseas scholar. I know of another who from a position of secondary school HOD was appointed as a JC Vice-Principal - also a scholar on the FLP programme. Just look at the linked-in profiles of many P and Vp - almost 80% are scholars.
This is my 13th year in service and at age 39, I know that I have reached the highest appointment I can possibly hold due to my non-scholar status. Truth be told, I have learnt to slow down and take things easy, do a honest day's work, don't short change the students and don't mess up. As HOD, admin work never ends. Much time is spent and wasted at management meetings, energies spent dealing with over anxious parents , weeknights and weekends on marking, ranking and appraisal, exam setting and a host of other duties. After some time, the 'passion' inevitably will fizzle out.
And for the GEO officers who are thinking that the renumeration of a SEO1 officer is good - let me share that on my year of being bumped into seo1 from GEO5, the jump was not more than $250 (excluding the typical merit increment). Although we do not come into the service for purely monetary gains, I would anticipate that
MOE would accord better recognition for a milestone promotion such as this.
Fortunately, I have been thrifty in my years of working, and am considering leaving the service in a few years time to take on part time teaching/tutoring for a more well-balanced work life harmony.