All the talk about scholar vs non-scholars made me realise that some are rally disillusioned. I am a farmer, consistent A and B since the day I joined the school more than a decade ago, and I can safely tell you that paths of scholars are mapped out, and because of that, perf grades and cep are also ingeniously crafted to ensure that they are accelerated on their path to take on SLship or high leadership roles in HQ. They do not even need to assume the role of hod to move up to VP, simply appearing and disappearing between schools and HQ and somehow they are magically transformed into one ready for higher appointments.

While I consistently performed well in school and have tried out every single possible roles that brought about school/cluster/national impact, promotion came much slower. Cep… ultimately still basing it on paper qualification. Discussion about SLship was met with smokescreen, since many SLs themselves do not have good capabilities to develop people. A number of my friends (hod from different schools) face similar predicament. Career hod…what can we do?

Usually your RO will breach the topic to you. If keen, your SL will then speak to you.

Any written correspondence afterwards is more of a formality.

Well said. Been in schools where teachers make their own resources and don't share. Everyone waste time reinventing the wheel. Very toxic environment.

Got PSC/OMS scholars who promote every 2 years like clockwork.

2 years as BT, 2 years as AD in SM/HQ, 2 years as HOD in school, 2 year as VP. After 8 years become P, become some of the youngest P by 30s.

Quite ridiculous how someone with 4 years of teaching (2 years of BT-ship and 2 years as offloaded HOD) can run a school.

And all these are determined by A level results and the scholarship panel interview at 18 years old.

Some SLs may not even be aware that some teachers still use the same notes when syllabus and learning outcomes changed, or there are those wayang ones who dun teach properly but still consider got "impact". Otherwise, if students learn properly in schools, why so much demand for tuition?

yeah right. share with you so that u can create impact while the creators deem to have no impact.

mummy teachers
 

as a scholar, my cep/path changed drastically once i entered motherhood. so not necessarily all scholars get v good path. but yes they get some headstarts, it depends on how much opportunities are given, how the scholar worked (or 'talked'/'wayang') his/her way up.

Why would it be the creators seem to have no impact? Unless you can’t manage a class properly and can only produce resources? Don’t be selfish. Create a culture of sharing. Ask your colleagues to do some resources and you do some. Like this, you spend lesser time creating resources. I would even say, share lesson plans so that you don’t end up spending a lot of time thinking about lesson plans. Each colleague just need to do 1-2 topics and then share among the department. Spend the time engaging students instead. By sharing, you really reduce a lot of additional work.

Demand for tuition is partly due to the fact that not all students learn well in a 1:40 teacher to student ratio. The last time I was able to do 1-to-1 or even small group consults was as a BT. This was the ultimate type of differentiated instruction and it made a tremendous impact on the students that I had time for. Unfortunately once full loaded, that's it, impossible. Private tuition is the replacement for such consult. Realistically speaking, school teachers can't do it for every student, or even half of their students.

It’s all about ROI…

But what’s wrong of these people reaping the fruits of their hard work / efforts in their early days? Stop being jealous of these people. They worked hard to gain the scholarship and why is it unfair for them to climb up the ranks at a faster rate if they have shown results.

On PGDE
 

Hi, I am currently doing PGDE at NIE. Can I confirm that the results and classification of PGDE does not affect your salary/CEP/career progression? i.e., just need to pass PGDE can already?

If you get distinction, you will definitely get more opportunities.

apart from potentially getting more opportunities in school to prove yourself, will PGDE grades and classification affect your salary/CEP?

Half? Very optimistic.

Full load 200 students, can squeeze out time to meet students after school for 2-3h is a luxury. At most maybe around 5 kids or 5 groups of students.

1/20

Some people are late bloomers.
Some early bloomers might not stay 'blooming' later in life.

MOE is not a service that is short of FCH holders from prestigious universities.

To say that they deserve accelerated progression as a reward for doing well in an exam, is laughable.

Among the many tiers of scholars, which scholar didn't do well for A levels?

Which FCH holder didn't work hard for their degree?

Despite all if them scoring straight As, the PSC scholar is better than the EMS scholars, who are in turn better than the teaching scholars?

For someone to be promoted every 2 years while others are taking 3-5years (or even longer), is it really because they are twice as capable as their peers?

Someone who didn't had a scholarship, or had a lower tier scholarship, they are forever in the less-competent bin of people regardless of how well they worked?

SLs are ultimately people developers too. If they cannot 'develop' a scholar well, it also reflects badly on them in their work review. Very hard for them to justify why scholars posted to them are not developed to meet HQ's expectations.

And since scholars usually stay for 2-3 years, it is easier to just give them good performance grades and have them move on to the next posting.

For those who have been in the service for a while, we have definitely seen incompetent people leaving behind a mess for others to clean up, and still getting promoted despite the mess they created.

Will not affect salary, as salary is based on your degree.

For CEP, might make a difference if you are the valedictorian of your PGDE cohort

I second this.
Some maybe never go take up scholarship (use Parent’s scholarship lor) and then their paths become defined, even if they could be performing as good as higher tier scholars?

This system is ********.

But you cannot deduct those scholars’ effort and hard work during their earlier years. They did well not just academically but also in their CCAs and performed exceptionally during the interviews so that they get the prestigious scholarships. Why do some get PSC and some only EMS? It’s because those PSC scholars prepared hard and stood out in front of the panel. We should not cancel their efforts. Anw, if they end up not performing, they will also end up getting stuck in their career. But it’s not wrong that they are given more opportunities for the hard work that they put in in their earlier days.

The rest of the late bloomers, if they bloom, people will also notice them and they can also grab opportunities to showcase their talents if they want.

I agree with you about the scholars. Many people here say that "oh during ranking KPs will be fair", but that's not always the same across all schools.

However, your batch was already quite lucky to have made it to HOD levels. If you look at the younger officers, their chances are now even slimmer, especially for non scholars. In fact, it's hard to even get CONSISTENT A and B grades for non scholars.

despite what u and many posters have mentioned, its not so easy to be able to "can always change school to find better opportunities"

i know of people who have been trying for years to transfer out simply coz of location, but fail everytime due to "excess headcount". also know of people who kena blocked from transferring or leaving coz school got shortage.

unless u are saying, be despo enough to change to whatever dumping ground is available e.g. random closed posting or do cross level deployment all the way till kindergarten

Yes, totally not easy these days. I know of a high performing psc scholar. 3rd posting, SH confirmed, but HOD Int now. Gone are the days when people, scholar or not, can just jump straight to HOD after a couple of years as a BT

This is probably the fastest rate of promotion for males these days already.
Year 1 to 2 - school
Year 3 to 4 - hq (Get geo4 in 4th year)
Year 5 to 6 - SH
Year 7 - HOD Int

if this is only for high performing psc, then that's like what, less than 3% of a cohort? gosh

the rest maybe need twice or thrice the amount of time? wait for 15-20 years huh

Open posting is fair. You cannot be blocked from leaving if you clear the interview. Only closed posting can be “blocked”. Don’t believe, ask HR.

Even PSC scholar also need to be GEO4 to be an appointed SH LOL. By this calculation, even GEO4 by year 4 is probably considered the fastest. Also take note that this is probably for PSC scholars (education). Those with dual ministry or admin track of course will be rotated to other ministries.

Well other regular farmers could enjoy an equally fast rate of promotion if opportunies happen to rise in the school (e.g. you’re a 2 year old SH when your HOD decides to leave)

My school had a teaching award holder get GEO4 in year 4 (NSman). It's not exclusive to PSC scholars.

Not true, friend of mine is a farmer with Dip Ed cert, no degree qualification
year 4: GEO 4
year 5: SH GEO5
year 7: HOD
Year 9: SEO1

Given that default CEP for teachers is GEO5, 15-20 years is not unlikely.

Not true. Have personally seen cases where posting got blocked due to teacher shortage.

This is totally BS.

Non degree, start from GEO1. Need to slowly climb GEO 2,3 also.

And it is extremely uncommon for 2 promotions in 2 years

There's so many places to go... other schools, HQ, secondment, further studies, cross-level deployment... if transferring out means to the perfect "everyone want to go", of course easily rejected. Not sire about the blocked open posting, so far haven't heard of.

Certainly heard of colleagues who wish to apply for open posting but got blocked within their school.

Anyone ever heard that a P would need to explain to Supt if there is more than 10 outgoing tcr?

Got a colleague who has cleared interview, got released by P of current school, and accepted by P of receiving school.

But HR blocked the transfer, because of shortage of teachers.
To allow the transfer, HR needs to post in a replacement teacher.

Think because a replacement couldn't be found, the transfer was blocked centrally by HR, and the teacher was told to try applying for OPE the next year.

How can a P block open posting? The most they can do is delay your release date. P will definitely speak to a staff when he/she applies for OPE and try to persuade them from not leaving. Only the staff can choose whether to apply or not. Maybe some Ps might say negative things like “you’ll never get it”.

If you apply for OPE, and go for interview and aced your interview and get an offer, no P can stop you. The most they can is delay your release date. This is our system. Don’t be fooled.

sounds entitled.

no one cares if promotion is by obvious merit but not by undeserved "through train"

it is like the current IP system. some got in sec 1 through their PSLE or DSA, then even if the students do not perform well in Junior High, they still get to go to Senior High due to flaws in the system, depriving deserving O level students of their places in a JC.

Promotion
 

Anyone caught wind of their promotion?

Quite sure many here have faced this issue before, so asking for some solutions here.

Anyone's department had a few people leaving at once before? So from what I know, a few have already informed P they are resigning by the end of Sem 1, but there is still no news of any incoming replacements, regardless of whether it's a BT or experienced officer. These are also resignations, not transferring to other places, so P cannot block.

FAJT quota in the school is already completely filled up by other departments which are also severely lacking manpower.

Worst case will be for the remaining officers in the department, KPs included, to be overwhelmed and timetables totally redone until some new manpower becomes available, which is something everyone hopes to avoid.

No one will be posted in until these staff have officially left the system. HR doesn’t provide headcount in advance. Need to really relook into the school deployment and see if there are any issue with deployment issue as it seems like so many departments are understaffed.

Is it common to give such long notice to P??
M also intending to leave end of sem1..