will there be merit increment for C-?

how long does it take for mid-career laterals to hit 120k pa incl all bonuses?

I was cross-level deployed. After my HQ stint, all of us are 'highly encouraged' to go primary schools. As a KP, I would say workload in primary school is heavier. But just be humble and take a learner stance.

The PB I received last year was 3.75 (I am a SEO1) for the work done in 2018, which happen to be my first year as a primary school teacher. This is for the large volume of work I did. (I never worked like this before in secondary schools - Hahaha). Nonetheless, even I worked just as hard in a secondary school, this is the PB which I would never get in a secondary school.

So I would say not all is bad in primary schools. However, do note that once you decided to go primary schools, the chances of you going back to secondary schools/JCs are very low.

You better dun come in. I know but I won't say

Not unheard of for lower sub grade 1 or 2. Geo 3 onwards demands get higher, and because of the salary that one is drawing, giving him/her an A means that there will be lesser for the others. I have gotten A twice at Geo 4. Shiok. But to sustain them? Hard.

Wow. Can u share or any hints on how can we get A or consistent B at GEO3?
My school has surplus of teachers for this particular subject and I'm kind of useless here. This year is quite worrying.

Try to work on things that have a school-wide impact. Contributions in just your subject area will only get you so far.

If you want to be noticed and climb, a surplus of teachers in your school is probably the best kind of situation. It means you have more time to work on stuff that gets you noticed positively by a wider range of KPs and SLs. Ask to lead committees or school-wide projects. Present at open classrooms. Go for courses and share relevant learning with your department during internal PD sessions. Basically, look at the KRAs for your subgrade and beef up your portfolio of work in the non-T&L areas (assuming your T&L is already sorted and solid and you have time and mental bandwidth to work on other areas - don't bother trying to climb if your T&L still cannot make it). Be higher profile and be noticed, but don't be obnoxious. If you are noticed to be reliably performing beyond your current grade, you will obviously be given good performance grades and probably promoted.

Friend of mine who taught in a neighbourhood secondary school with disciplinary issues still got a massive culture shock in primary school because of the much much much more frequent need to raise voice, yell, bang table/whiteboard, bring a bell into class just to keep students paying attention for more than 5 minutes at a stretch. I mean yeah we have to deliver engaging lessons and all but sometimes it simply takes more than 5 minutes to explain a complicated concept and they just have to sit down and listen in order to learn.

And yeah this friend is an ST, nowhere near a novice.

Highly unlikely. Your best option is to set up auto transfer from your salary account to the other account every month.