Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by WorkSoHard

In my school, KPs have lighter workload, less classes, some are even banded (not full class), and some very senior KPs don’t teach the challenging (in terms of discipline). He openly said that “give me the students with the best results, I don’t want to deal with discipline issues”. He equate good results to good behavior.

Very true, happening almost in all schools. Then they will say other officers cannot manage their classes.

Originally Posted by WorkSoHard

In my school, KPs have lighter workload, less classes, some are even banded (not full class), and some very senior KPs don’t teach the challenging (in terms of discipline). He openly said that “give me the students with the best results, I don’t want to deal with discipline issues”. He equate good results to good behavior.

Horrible. No wonder our students are not as supported as they should be.

Good and dedicated teachers are rare and may not be adequately appreciated and rewarded.

Originally Posted by WorkSoHard

In my school, KPs have lighter workload, less classes, some are even banded (not full class), and some very senior KPs don’t teach the challenging (in terms of discipline). He openly said that “give me the students with the best results, I don’t want to deal with discipline issues”. He equate good results to good behavior.

KPs have more meetings and need to write more reports and manage a team. They spend time to guide and lead the teachers in the department that’s why need to be offloaded. Not possible to have normal teaching, cca and form teachership load and yet perform KP duties. Simply not manageable.

Originally Posted by WorkSoHard

In my school, KPs have lighter workload, less classes, some are even banded (not full class), and some very senior KPs don’t teach the challenging (in terms of discipline). He openly said that “give me the students with the best results, I don’t want to deal with discipline issues”. He equate good results to good behavior.

Very few KPs I know actually take the more "difficult" classes. Most of them seem to take classes where the students are older (hence more mature) and are more academically inclined.

To add on, many of the projects proposed and implemented by KPs can be seen being tanked and executed by the normal teachers (while this ironically boosts their portfolios and KPIs when they only "assign work").

Does this happen in other schools too?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

KPs have more meetings and need to write more reports and manage a team. They spend time to guide and lead the teachers in the department that’s why need to be offloaded. Not possible to have normal teaching, cca and form teachership load and yet perform KP duties. Simply not manageable.

There are some KPs who are supposed to "guide and lead others" but they actually don't. Work is assigned to the normal teachers without guidance, that's all. I think all teachers are intelligent enough to see this. Yet most teachers are unable to voice out since it places their performance grade at risk by the KPs ranking them.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Very few KPs I know actually take the more "difficult" classes. Most of them seem to take classes where the students are older (hence more mature) and are more academically inclined.

To add on, many of the projects proposed and implemented by KPs can be seen being tanked and executed by the normal teachers (while this ironically boosts their portfolios and KPIs when they only "assign work").

Does this happen in other schools too?

Think it depends very much on school culture. In my school, the tail-end classes are often taught by KP. The P kinda expects it, even - perhaps that's why?

Anyone can share what are the job grades of a polytechnic lecturer? I have just been offered a entry level lecturer position at a polytechnic, and just curious how what is it like in the industry.

Would be good if someone can share on the typical workload/working hours too.

Anybody knows how to promote to VP-ship, especially for non-scholars? Is it even possible, given the excess situation and what’s the criteria?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Anybody knows how to promote to VP-ship, especially for non-scholars? Is it even possible, given the excess situation and what’s the criteria?

I've never hit this milestone so a bit of guesswork on my part, but some of my thoughts:

1) Plenty of non-scholars have made it to school leadership

2) You will need to have a high CEP, probably serving as HOD but high-performing and handling cross-department/full-school affairs

3) MOE HR identifies certain of these people for a VP interview. Not everyone clears this.

4) If you're really interested, talk to your RO about this and how you could work towards moving up the leadership track (assuming you're a current HOD) - can couch it as further down the road, if you think it's not likely to be so soon. If you feel too embarrassed to do even that, it might also be a sign about your readiness for this?

Anyone can share what are the job grades of a polytechnic lecturer? I have just been offered a entry level lecturer position at a polytechnic, and just curious how what is it like in the industry.

Would be good if someone can share on the typical workload/working hours too.