Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

True words. If your first year as a SH or HOD in a school was hectic, HQ is three times worse even in the 'EO-friendly', 'non-chiongster' branches. In the chiongster parts of HQ, it's even worse than that. But you grow slowly from there lah, nothing wrong with feeling that it is xiong at first.

it depends on the nature of your 'struggle' in school. is it coping with marking/students' work/classroom management/office politics? in HQ it's a diff ballgame. hectic yes, cos you got soo many stakeholders to engage and liase within tight deadlines, but you dont have the 'burden' of dealing with students' work like finishing markings over the weekend, or dealing with CCA management. for office work, you need to be disciplined in managing your schedule as there's no 'timetable' per say like in schools. it can really be refreshing to be in a new work environment.

challenging yes, cos the learning curve can be steep. but to claim that its 3 times harder is an exaggeration la, unless in school you're the type of middle management who delegates happily in the name of 'grooming'

Does anyone know the range of salaries for direct hire at an independent school for someone of abt 15 years of teaching experience?

Old birds paid so much sit at the top n shake leg..

New birds paid peanuts so much to learn but still need tank all the sai n no end in sight... Dont leave is stupid!!!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

the increase in connect plan payout is meant to address the higher attrition rate seen among 'new' teachers, esp in their first 3 years of service. many quit once their bond finishes. for old birds (probably like you), there is less likelihood for you to leave the service despite grumbling here and there.

also, most normal teachers (non D graders) who have clocked around 10 years would probably see their salary almost doubled (after a pay rise of 5%) compared to their very first pay. this group knows deep down that it's hard to earn a similar amount elsewhere if they were to leave. go and ask your fellow FAJTs or even those who left for the tuition industry

hmmm but does this solve the root problem? i guess the phenomenon would just become “more younger teachers are leaving the service once they collect their 1st connect plan payout”.

also, FAJTs had their pay adjustment back in 2020. and the calculated hourly pay is actually higher than a normal teacher. not to forget that most FAJTs enjoy their work a lot more - hardly any misc or admin work to deal with.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hmmm but does this solve the root problem? i guess the phenomenon would just become “more younger teachers are leaving the service once they collect their 1st connect plan payout”.

also, FAJTs had their pay adjustment back in 2020. and the calculated hourly pay is actually higher than a normal teacher. not to forget that most FAJTs enjoy their work a lot more - hardly any misc or admin work to deal with.

addressing high attrition rate doesnt mean reduce it to zero totally. there'll still be teachers who leave no matter how much incentive you throw at them. so it's more of retaining those who're tempted by slightly better work conditions + remuneration outside of the industry. as long as the attrition rate is reduced or 'managed', it's good enough.

bear in mind too, 4 years after service is probably the common period where teachers moved on to their phase of life: marriage/having kids/own BTO flat, so that lump sum of 25k+ (vs 15k) and more if they endure for another 3 years (28k), is a strong pull factor.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hmmm but does this solve the root problem? i guess the phenomenon would just become “more younger teachers are leaving the service once they collect their 1st connect plan payout”.

also, FAJTs had their pay adjustment back in 2020. and the calculated hourly pay is actually higher than a normal teacher. not to forget that most FAJTs enjoy their work a lot more - hardly any misc or admin work to deal with.

Need to amass sufficient passive income before becoming fajt will be better because they are not paid during school holidays and have no bonuses.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hmmm but does this solve the root problem? i guess the phenomenon would just become “more younger teachers are leaving the service once they collect their 1st connect plan payout”.

also, FAJTs had their pay adjustment back in 2020. and the calculated hourly pay is actually higher than a normal teacher. not to forget that most FAJTs enjoy their work a lot more - hardly any misc or admin work to deal with.

Isn’t CAJT the best deal? Higher pay than fajt and workload is much lesser than full timers also

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hmmm but does this solve the root problem? i guess the phenomenon would just become “more younger teachers are leaving the service once they collect their 1st connect plan payout”.

I had the same thought - am very much past this window myself, but I imagine the increased first payout for CONNECT will only incentivise me to stay for that first milestone… leaving after that remains a very real option?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Does anyone know the range of salaries for direct hire at an independent school for someone of abt 15 years of teaching experience?

They will tend to follow national scale, and top up a bit.

As a rough rule of thumb, if you're currently an MOE teacher, can take your current pay and add two increments?

(Caveat: this was from what I'd heard about a decade ago.)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I had the same thought - am very much past this window myself, but I imagine the increased first payout for CONNECT will only incentivise me to stay for that first milestone… leaving after that remains a very real option?

Agree, if I were to think back to that stage of my career, the biggest push factor was not the salary, it was the progression bottleneck. Want to be a subject head? No vacancy in the whole cluster. All the oldies sitting on the same positions for 5+ years. Want to go HQ? Interesting positions all filled during FHQ posting exercise. Etc.

Now old already don't care about chionging already.