Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
There is a lot of truth in what you've mentioned, but I'm a little puzzled by what you'd mentioned about Senior Teachers and Curriculum/Subject Heads being 'service recognition nonsense'. Those posts are officially recognised as roles of higher responsibility by MOE, and officers serving in these positions will be able to be promoted to the SEO1 pay scale (as opposed to normal teachers who peak at GEO1A3).
(Subject Heads also often act as Reporting Officers for teachers, too.)
Senior Teachers do often get involved in coaching newer teachers, but that is really part of the job description and STs should be aware of this when they take up the role.
In fact, many officers who are on the leadership track choose to switch to becoming Senior Teachers if they find they would rather concentrate on teaching as opposed to department administration. |
Long before giving fake promotions became popular, people join
MOE as teacher and that’s it. They get their increments yearly and salary go up with time and the older ones are expected to give younger ones guidance. Those who able to navigate the politics and please their bosses get promoted while the rest are just content with being a teacher all the way.
Then came the late 90s trend in pte and public sector of people being promoted every few years. But the fundamental remain unchanged, there is only 1 HOD for every 10-15 teachers, so how? It was then that
MOE came up with this rubbish about management and teacher track together with fancy job levels and titles that give the fake appearance of “progression”.
But ask yourself, what difference is there between a so called Curriculum Head and Senior Teacher and Teacher? None at all.
Job wise they are almost the same, the do the same teaching, teach the same number of class, have the same level of decision making power. They are all individual roles with no subordinates. There is no pay difference if you strip off wage inflation that comes with years of service. For eg. a teacher who join at 3.5k just by following general wage inflation of 4% will reach 6.3k after 15 years, the pay of a Senior Teacher. Benefit same as well.
At the end of the day, in
MOE’s eyes you are not moving up the ladder at all, all these mumbo jumbo is just pacifying the masses who cannot make it to HOD so that they dun quit en masse. Most people realize that, so they fight politics like mad to get HOD and many resign once they see they lost out.
Also to take note, Subject Head is the precursor to HOD. If you get Subject Head, it means you are in the management track. This is different from Curriculum Head, which is yet another fake title implemented in some schools that is for those who are thrown into the teaching track. Subject Head means you are in the run to be HOD, Curriculum Head means you are stuck and have no hope to be made manager.
Not trying to denigrate the teaching profession here, but when it comes to talk about career and pay progression, we gotta be true to ourselves and stop kidding ourselves using fancy titles and job levels.