Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Honestly, a lot of problems can be alleviated substantially by increasing teacher headcount a little bit.. NOT mass hiring like in the late '00s, but just increasing a bit. There are enough good people queueing up to join. One of such problems is the lack of exposure to the outside world. Now, we have TWA+. TWA+ is a policy with good intent.

But how many teachers can a school afford to let go on long leave? Long enough leave to really learn something new and learn how to bring it back to enrich their students' learning with it? One or two teachers on long leave in a department is already enough to bring the timetable to its knees. We have too little buffer capacity.

I totally agree with this. And just an observation, it's the first time I have witnessed so many empty tables and more than 10 FAJT/RT in the staff room. I'm not sure how much more this vicious cycle of resignations and NPL of current perm teachers will worsen.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Its like if someone claims that they like to code but keep talking about how they want to move to a project managerial role where they do less coding, I would be just as skeptical.

So people like bill gates , zuckerberg, should have stayed as coders?

Since by switching to fulltime managerial tracks, they have by your definition betrayed their passion for coding?

Doctors should stay in public hospitals too. Because running their own business shows that they lack passion in treating patients?

Businessmen should stay at the retail frontline and do direct sales with customers, because focusing on backend corporate roles means they lack passion in their business?

Our generals should have never been promoted. Should all hentak kaki at being privates, because they signed on as career soldiers and should stick to doing soldier-ly stuff?

Do you realise how ridiculous this line of reasoning is?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Honestly, a lot of problems can be alleviated substantially by increasing teacher headcount a little bit.. NOT mass hiring like in the late '00s, but just increasing a bit. There are enough good people queueing up to join. One of such problems is the lack of exposure to the outside world. Now, we have TWA+. TWA+ is a policy with good intent.

But how many teachers can a school afford to let go on long leave? Long enough leave to really learn something new and learn how to bring it back to enrich their students' learning with it? One or two teachers on long leave in a department is already enough to bring the timetable to its knees. We have too little buffer capacity.

Should count your blessings already if they simply maintain headcount.

Instead of increasing, or maintaining, MOE has been cutting teachers headcount for the past 6 years.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Should count your blessings already if they simply maintain headcount.

Instead of increasing, or maintaining, MOE has been cutting teachers headcount for the past 6 years.

Oh so we should be thankful for getting screwed more gently, because we normally get screwed hard?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Should count your blessings already if they simply maintain headcount.

Instead of increasing, or maintaining, MOE has been cutting teachers headcount for the past 6 years.

ya so the suggestion by the poster is to increase the headcount back by a little lor.

there are statistics of the headcount published out there for the last 10 years or so

overall from the peak till now cut about 6000-7000 staff - everyone knows they saved quite a hefty sum from that already

increase back by just 1000-2000 possible??

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I mean just look at this:

s://.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/lucasfilm-shut-operations-singapore-studio-animation-visual-effects-disney-3700061

Out of nowhere, their rice bowl gone. And this isn't uncommon. Foreign banks do this to locals all the time. They decide SG isn't profitable, they pack up and leave. Shutting down the entire bank/department/team etc. As someone previously from the private sector working with private bankers/traders from these foreign banks...i can tell you they are constantly under pressure, and constantly worried. Hell, even my boss back then was constantly worried that she would be asked to leave if she doesn't deliver in a quarter or 2.

What if I tell you that teachers are not really spared from this?

Yes, the 'business' is very stable, but it is by no means an iron rice bowl.

Have you thought about what happened to the surplus teachers when schools merged?

The perm staff were not sacked or retrenched immediately, that's true.
By right, all were redeployed.

And if all of them were redeployed, your school would have had an increase in headcount right? Do they?

Some of the redeployments are too different from the original role, and indirectly the officer is forced to quit. Heard of JC teachers suddenly redeployed to teach lower primary, from teaching complex content to motivated young adults, to teaching a group of rowdy children who can't even read and write properly.

Also seen many old timer pressured to retire early. Can be in the form of D grades, can be in the form of being assigned very challenging classes, or impossible workload and responsibilities.

They can't fire you that easily, but there are many ways to make people leave.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I totally agree with this. And just an observation, it's the first time I have witnessed so many empty tables and more than 10 FAJT/RT in the staff room. I'm not sure how much more this vicious cycle of resignations and NPL of current perm teachers will worsen.

This is my school currently. And more leaving by end of this year. My department is down by 6 already. We were told recently to take on more load in 2024 cos the number of department programmes are going to remain the same, if not more, like always, every year there's something new to add. There will also be an increase in PLTs and PD. And we have to take on more classes due to the shortage of teachers. Morale in my department is low and I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel in 2024.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So people like bill gates , zuckerberg, should have stayed as coders?

Since by switching to fulltime managerial tracks, they have by your definition betrayed their passion for coding?

Doctors should stay in public hospitals too. Because running their own business shows that they lack passion in treating patients?

Businessmen should stay at the retail frontline and do direct sales with customers, because focusing on backend corporate roles means they lack passion in their business?

Our generals should have never been promoted. Should all hentak kaki at being privates, because they signed on as career soldiers and should stick to doing soldier-ly stuff?

Do you realise how ridiculous this line of reasoning is?

Uhh no. Doctors in private practice also treat patients? Name an sg general who signed on because they loved to be a soldier rather than taking that prestigious scholarship and knowing that they will zoom up the ranks

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Those who had received your FLP invite, how old were you and how many years in service did you have under your belt? Is there a specific cep we need to attain as non-scholars? For example P6 (VP)?

Got mine at 5th year, early 30s, male, non scholar, non KP, never gotten an A, mainly Bs and C+s. Not sure about CEP but should be pretty good (boss said that to me) as long as you perform and not screw up.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is my school currently. And more leaving by end of this year. My department is down by 6 already. We were told recently to take on more load in 2024 cos the number of department programmes are going to remain the same, if not more, like always, every year there's something new to add. There will also be an increase in PLTs and PD. And we have to take on more classes due to the shortage of teachers. Morale in my department is low and I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel in 2024.

oh no...

concrete example of the vicious cycle of staff leaving...those left behind will definitely reconsider whether its worth it to stay on