Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

im quite curious as to whether feedback is really effectively acted upon by KPs and SLs in most schools, or if feedback is just being collected just for the sake for showing that "work is being done" haha

and if SLs have the same work style, or brush this off as a trivial matter, or just wish to cover this person...would the feedback even be useful?

Nothing would be known if no one tried. Too many Singaporeans just whine and expect things to magically happen. Like teachers who complain that they are doing too much work to fellow teachersbut then when the KP ask for discussion on workload end up being humji and say that things are ok

Originally Posted by Unregistered

When is the next climate survey for schools? The ones conducted yearly within the school is useless because it requires login with email and we get called for coffee for unfavourable responses and may end up with more work.

I had stopped doing all these climate survey all these years. The SLs know who wrote what. Some SLs publicly quoted the comments during staff meetings and stared at the direction of the trs who wrote comments. Those internal survey also better not do. Some KPs made use of those comments and played politics against capable and hardworking KPs. I had seen good teachers misunderstanding their heads and got "distracted" from what a good teacher should focus on. The culture becomes toxic and the school is like a palace fight. Of course, QSE and academic results are either inconsistent or stagnant.. nothing much value addedness to the students. Discipline love love love but i feel it had gone to spoiling the students

All these ugly stances, feedback to SLs and ask for fairness also no use. The SLs just continue to side these KPs who continue to win moe awards and exploit Eat With Family Day, bragging how much she would "do" and "engage" the team. Promises that are fleeting. Just give the teachers the peace to be fully present with own family or own peace for that few occasions. Are all these so difficult? Maybe MOE HRs should put care and concern as HODs and SLs KRAs, not innovation. These leaders are only concerned about their own career progression.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Nothing would be known if no one tried. Too many Singaporeans just whine and expect things to magically happen. Like teachers who complain that they are doing too much work to fellow teachersbut then when the KP ask for discussion on workload end up being humji and say that things are ok

If say cannot cope, could be interpreted as no ability or no drive. CEP review incoming.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's the point of whining about it here? Did you do anything to raise it to your SL? You say you want MOE HR to do something about it but you never do anything. If your SL indeed stressed no contact then share that one of their HoDs ignored their directive.

What do you expect to be done when it's some random person posting this online. If you really think that this is something that's truly important then put your name to it and dare to stand up for something that you believe in. Don't be just a keyboard warrior and complain about something when you don't even do any

Of course the staff had feedback via internal survey. The promises were given yet broken. Not once but many times. School communication states no whats app after 6pm. This same HOD what app after 7pm. People closing one eye and been forgiving throughout the year. The trs on the ground are understanding if it is occassional. The breaking point is really eat with family day. Why just cant let's everyone hv some peace on the last day respectfully. Well , SLs are aware and reply given is ‘will remind again"’.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Lazy to quote all the posts above...so just giving a general response based on personal observations.

The aggressive cutting of headcount is not only by drastically reducing recruitment, but also by "enticing" or "forcing" people to leave. Extremely competitive requirements for fresh grads to be shortlisted and chosen...hence in a way packaging the career to be a "golden" or "hard-to-get" opportunity. Pushing people out with overwhelming workload and "encouraging lifelong learning" with external work attachments - hence encouraging current officers to do a career switch.

Why do all these? A guess would be to get rid of the top-heavy officers at the salary ceilings or management level. Another aggressive ongoing method is to drag out the career pathways of younger officers with slow promotions through a variety of means - "grooming" for a few years before being allowed an official appointment, or "need to wait/queue for your turn".

Will KPs or SLs try to manage headcount within the school? The above mentioned points about headcount is already affecting all schools, hence it is more of a policy issue. This means that at the school level, even the hands of higher management are probably tied. Their temporary solution would be to try and hire FAJT or RT, but there is still a limit. Many schools have already hit the quota of 10 for the whole school.

Some of us have probably only witnessed changes when the situation gets extreme. Some HOD or SL will only start panicking when many people of the same department mass quit or leave. Even this emcare feedback may not work since it just gets rerouted back to higher management. It is probably more for parents' usage (i.e. complaints). So the only thing emcare does is to expose your complaint more clearly to the KPs and SLs, and depending on how your school culture is like, you may or may not be " blacklisted" somehow.

Observations of temporary stop gap measures by some schools:
1. Merge 2 challenging/low ability/chaotic classes into 1 - reduce requirement for 1 officer. Rinse and repeat across all levels. Even class sizes of near 50 for an immensely challenging group is not unheard of.
2. Long term relief by current dept officers, but not by a fixed person - meaning, for that particular lesson, there is always a different teacher coming in to teach ("spread out teaching load")
3. Last min search and ask for FAJT or RT and plonk that person to plug all gaps. By the way, not all SLs like FAJTs...for various reasons which are better left undisclosed.

Again, these are just personal observations and info gathered from others. Some may concur, some may object...but as to whether the situation is really favorable (especially for the current young officers), I think the question is rather rhetorical.

Reasons these ppl at the top of foodchain can come up with these strategies is they do not need to teach, handle civics or be managers of CCA, and there can be many of them. Normal and good teachers suffer, and are forced to be FAJTs. Vicious cycle.

Soln:
* Hod should not be offloaded for CCA or civics classes, only then can they deal with the pain of dealing with parents and chaperoning students for competitions while preparing resources for teaching and being accountable for students' learning. Imagine an HoD who leechs on subordinates' teaching materials.
* VP and P should teach at least one class, then there will not be so many different meetings and student issues. Imagine knowing the P and VP are teaching your class or will pass by a corridor to your class.
* How many GEOs would aspire to be KPs if the reward is not less classroom teaching, fewer responsibilities, and having really to lead by example?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Lazy to quote all the posts above...so just giving a general response based on personal observations.

The aggressive cutting of headcount is not only by drastically reducing recruitment, but also by "enticing" or "forcing" people to leave. Extremely competitive requirements for fresh grads to be shortlisted and chosen...hence in a way packaging the career to be a "golden" or "hard-to-get" opportunity. Pushing people out with overwhelming workload and "encouraging lifelong learning" with external work attachments - hence encouraging current officers to do a career switch.

Why do all these? A guess would be to get rid of the top-heavy officers at the salary ceilings or management level. Another aggressive ongoing method is to drag out the career pathways of younger officers with slow promotions through a variety of means - "grooming" for a few years before being allowed an official appointment, or "need to wait/queue for your turn".

Will KPs or SLs try to manage headcount within the school? The above mentioned points about headcount is already affecting all schools, hence it is more of a policy issue. This means that at the school level, even the hands of higher management are probably tied. Their temporary solution would be to try and hire FAJT or RT, but there is still a limit. Many schools have already hit the quota of 10 for the whole school.

Some of us have probably only witnessed changes when the situation gets extreme. Some HOD or SL will only start panicking when many people of the same department mass quit or leave. Even this emcare feedback may not work since it just gets rerouted back to higher management. It is probably more for parents' usage (i.e. complaints). So the only thing emcare does is to expose your complaint more clearly to the KPs and SLs, and depending on how your school culture is like, you may or may not be " blacklisted" somehow.

Observations of temporary stop gap measures by some schools:
1. Merge 2 challenging/low ability/chaotic classes into 1 - reduce requirement for 1 officer. Rinse and repeat across all levels. Even class sizes of near 50 for an immensely challenging group is not unheard of.
2. Long term relief by current dept officers, but not by a fixed person - meaning, for that particular lesson, there is always a different teacher coming in to teach ("spread out teaching load")
3. Last min search and ask for FAJT or RT and plonk that person to plug all gaps. By the way, not all SLs like FAJTs...for various reasons which are better left undisclosed.

Again, these are just personal observations and info gathered from others. Some may concur, some may object...but as to whether the situation is really favorable (especially for the current young officers), I think the question is rather rhetorical.

From what I'm seeing, it's mostly the younger folks who are leaving, the geo3s and geo4s.

Management is bloated, because very few leave.

Annual reporting of teaching information is rigged, since there is a cap on the number of hours we can report.

Colleagues, please max out the number of hours you declare while filling in the form

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Reasons these ppl at the top of foodchain can come up with these strategies is they do not need to teach, handle civics or be managers of CCA, and there can be many of them. Normal and good teachers suffer, and are forced to be FAJTs. Vicious cycle.

Soln:
* Hod should not be offloaded for CCA or civics classes, only then can they deal with the pain of dealing with parents and chaperoning students for competitions while preparing resources for teaching and being accountable for students' learning. Imagine an HoD who leechs on subordinates' teaching materials.
* VP and P should teach at least one class, then there will not be so many different meetings and student issues. Imagine knowing the P and VP are teaching your class or will pass by a corridor to your class.
* How many GEOs would aspire to be KPs if the reward is not less classroom teaching, fewer responsibilities, and having really to lead by example?

To add on to this solution list:
HODs' books and files MUST be checked, just like how the Subject and Level Heads' books and files are checked. Even if their books and files are not checked, the SLs MUST be curious and ask their HODs in how they lead their trs in teaching practices. Not fairy airy stuff too.. really sound PCK to build rigour and understanding in students. Ask your HODs to show samples of their students' work or Dep PD slides. Nowadays, HODs check trs' books and files but no feedback was given. Yet, the HOD can be given MOE awards. Does it mean when one is on leadership role, the teaching is of lowest priority? One parent shared that her child lost interest and confidence in the subject which was taught by the HOD, resulting in a drop in results. As teachers, who can we feedback to?

SLs shoukd remind their HODs not be biased. Senior Teachers should not be HODs pets. STs should drive pedagogy and assessments in school throughout the year, and not busybody with programmes. Think about how to uplift the bottom and share hpw should the enhanced 21cc should be enacted in classrooms. Role model how to build in rigour in teaching since there is only one final year exam. Cluster sharing is just one-time and the lesson plan and resources are not even shared in dep drive. HODs should encourage their STs to open the classrooms more regularly.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Reasons these ppl at the top of foodchain can come up with these strategies is they do not need to teach, handle civics or be managers of CCA, and there can be many of them. Normal and good teachers suffer, and are forced to be FAJTs. Vicious cycle.

Soln:
* Hod should not be offloaded for CCA or civics classes, only then can they deal with the pain of dealing with parents and chaperoning students for competitions while preparing resources for teaching and being accountable for students' learning. Imagine an HoD who leechs on subordinates' teaching materials.
* VP and P should teach at least one class, then there will not be so many different meetings and student issues. Imagine knowing the P and VP are teaching your class or will pass by a corridor to your class.
* How many GEOs would aspire to be KPs if the reward is not less classroom teaching, fewer responsibilities, and having really to lead by example?

To ask the VP and P to teach the class seems unreasonable. They hv their work to do as well....

I feel that HODs should not just "give" themselves only small classes like foundation and pullout classes all the time. In my school context, the "bottom" classes are not taught by HODs or STs. The frustration among trs is because it is always that few trs who always teach the "bottom". Once these trs decided to leave the sch or take npl, this is where other trs have to be loaded more. And honestly, if there is less trs, rethink instead of having pullout classes, why not level up the trs' competency in etech or STP? I seriously dont think pullout is the only solution too.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If say cannot cope, could be interpreted as no ability or no drive. CEP review incoming.

Why not? You want to do less work but u still want good performance grade AND a promotion. What world are u living in?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why not? You want to do less work but u still want good performance grade AND a promotion. What world are u living in?

Not the original poster but I believe they were responding to this:

"Like teachers who complain that they are doing too much work to fellow teachersbut then when the KP ask for discussion on workload end up being humji and say that things are ok"

I think it is fair to feel (and complain among friends/colleagues) that there is way too much work, but also choose to suck it up and not ask ROs for less work, because they want good performance grades and to keep their CEP.

The overwork is an objective fact of working in MOE. It is truth, not an opinion. You can't finish all your work in a 44 hour work week... or 60 for that matter. It's just not possible unless you're intentionally shortchanging your students.