Is teaching really stressful?

What’s his/ her career options? Found a job yet?

No worries, no one to do spot check. Continue tuition to earn extra cash...it's lucrative.

On paper they ask u to get permission from principal before you teach pte tuition. In practice i think even the prinicipal himself might teach tuition too.

Bumped into my HOD before at tuition centre, it's open secret... everybody is hush hush

You need to ensure that your additional “tuition” does not compromise with the quality of work you do in school. Otherwise, it is actually very unfair for the students. Ultimately, the role of an educator is to nurture students and help them to learn. If we do our job well, then students will not need tuition.

When will the school leaders typically consider if a teacher is ready for leadership roles?

Have you spoken to your RO regarding your wish to be part of the leadership track? Schools will typically look at grooming teachers after their 3rd year in service. However, school leaders will usually look for outstanding teachers who have taken on many bigger roles, scholars or teachers who scored distinction during practicum. If you wish to be on the leadership role, you need to let your SLs know your interest and hope that they will give you roles to showcase your leadership.

Is it true that to be a school leader and get on the leadership track, you will have to do a lot of saikang like projects and whatnot, which takes up a lot of time.

But as a HOD, 8-9k is a given, and when factoring in the bonuses, a 20mnth annual package is possible - 150k and above a year?

My question as a budding teacher (I am a MOE local teaching scholar) is - if I am financially motivated - does it make more sense to give tuition outside or strive to be a HOD.

I understand that to be a HOD, one will most probably be too busy to give tuition outside.
Lastly, do honour grades matter in terms of prospect?

EO pay scale (crowdsourced/estimated)
 

GEO1: ? (Non-graduate)
GEO2 (Untrained): 2000-4340
GEO2 (Trained): 2538-4500
GEO3: 3515 -5616
GEO4: 4545-7271
GEO5: 4903-7845 (max salary grade for standard teacher)
SEO1: 5651-9064 (min. LH/SH/ST)
SEO2: 7236-10766 (min. HOD/LT)
SEO3: 8748-11232 (+9%?) (min. HOD/MT)

A HOD should make it to SEO1 relatively easily, which maxes out around 9k. Most will move up to SEO2 (10k) and maybe even SEO3 (12k?) by retirement, even without going up the ladder further.

At SEO level it gets harder to get high performance grade, since you are ranked against other appointment holders. Assuming you really cap at HOD level, let's assume you'll be an average C grader. (I've heard that PB quantum is higher for SEOs, but I don't know the exact figures there). Assuming a more conservative 16 month package, at the SEO1 ceiling that's still about 140k per year. The annual cap could exceed 150k once you hit SEO2.

I'm not that familiar with private tuition industry, but I imagine it's hard to top that unless you are a star tutor, and possibly only if self-employed. Overall I imagine private might net you more $/hour - a major trade-off would be less stability as compared to MOE employment.

You'll probably need to do more research to investigate potential earnings in the private side (or maybe someone more knowledgeable can share?), but your personal job satisfaction should play a part here. Some people I know value the greater focus on teaching within the tuition scene; some prefer the hours; others I know feel a mission to do their part contributing to the public system (cheesy but true).

(Re: your initial question - Saikang projects, if executed well, will help demonstrate your ability to manage resources and timelines. This should, of course, be on top of your core classroom/CCA duties. If you're ‘hungry’, I suggest just being upfront with your RO about wanting more opportunities to learn more. If you're competent enough, he/she should appreciate having a reliable officer to task things to while simultaneously being groomed for further responsibilities.)