Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hierarchy in MOE: AO > MX > EO

Hard truth.

MX is just a trash generic scheme but they have superiority complex over the backbone of the education service.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

However, certain explanation given due to systemic constraints which the ground officers are striving to improve does not piece up the whole picture.

Pieces of reality are better than hiding behind complete opacity or brushing people off with non-answers along the lines of "aiya you all are not going to understand anyway, no point trying to explain properly". Infantilising people is disrespectful and simply not a way of earning their trust in your decision making processes.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Blaming the declining birth rate is simply parroting what you’re told by your higher ups. Since you talk abt connecting the dots, how abt exercising what you preach regarding the declining birth rates?

If schools/MOE are willing and committed to improve the student to teacher ratio, the increase in quality of learning will reap benefits manyfolds. it might even spur our local population to consider starting families and having more kids.

the decision/policy makers took so much effort to emulate the education system of other developed countries (Finland etc) through overseas visits & observations etc, but somehow stopped short of modelling (or conveniently ignored) the classroom size in such countries.

the change in student teacher ratio will definitely impact other national considerations. but since we claim we care so much abt our pple’s education, then those other national considerations need to be readjusted accordingly.

i’m not a disgruntled educator. there’re many merits in Singapore’s education system. however, it’s not a perfect one, and there’s much more that can be done. as much as we try to encourage our students to be critical thinkers, we ourselves need to be one. otherwise this echo chamber syndrome will lead us to a vicious cycle of self detriment

So many assumptions in this post. You are first assuming that teaching quality is consistently high across all teachers at the moment, and that with reduced class sizes, teaching quality might improve. If you have had a chance to observe teachers in the classroom, you might realize that with some teachers, even giving them a 1:1 student ratio, they still can’t teach

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hierarchy in MOE: AO > MX > EO

Hard truth.

This is not true. Ask HR and they will tell you that EO is the premium scheme in MOE. EOs enjoy more privileges than MXOs. So you have to be a really cmi EO to feel that MX > EO. AO, no need to compare at all, it is the premium of the premiums in all of civil service

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is not true. Ask HR and they will tell you that EO is the premium scheme in MOE. EOs enjoy more privileges than MXOs. So you have to be a really cmi EO to feel that MX > EO. AO, no need to compare at all, it is the premium of the premiums in all of civil service

What kind of privileges?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What kind of privileges?

Privilege includes no flexi work arrangements, can't take annual leave as and when needed, need to deal unreasonable customers aka parents

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Privilege includes no flexi work arrangements, can't take annual leave as and when needed, need to deal unreasonable customers aka parents

Got flexi work arrangements la... just that you pay dearly for the privilege. Pay reduction is disproportionately larger than actual workload reduction.

I think there's a common agreement here that the ministry needs to do something about the system which is crippling many of the ordinary teachers (majority of the workforce) out there.

Reducing class sizes really does help a lot for an average teacher out there...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So many assumptions in this post. You are first assuming that teaching quality is consistently high across all teachers at the moment, and that with reduced class sizes, teaching quality might improve. If you have had a chance to observe teachers in the classroom, you might realize that with some teachers, even giving them a 1:1 student ratio, they still can’t teach

...But this post really does have a point too. Should I also add that quote a number are KPs? And they do not need to undergo lesson observations? Which worsens the problem further each year?

From a HR point of view, this problem kinda surfaced when there were massive recruitment exercises 15-20 years ago, where any random Tom Dick and Harry can get easily hired. These groups of people are currently the Gen X or boomers, some of whom are also KPs occupying space in the current system.

Going back to the big picture, it would seem that majority (and increasing too) of the challenges are now system/nationwide, rather than just problems isolated within certain schools. Everyone agrees that education is important, but because the economic value is not immediate and obvious, it seems like less resources will be invested in it?

In the past, the truly anonymous school climate survey can be weaponised against SLs or KPs if there are school wide issues. The surveys conducted now are definitely not anonymous anymore and seem to be done for the sake of doing it only. And now with issues that seem to be system/nation wide (yet seemingly swept under the carpet), is there even a channel or avenue for feedback?

Or is the only way doing extreme things like reconsidering our votes during elections?

Sorry, just doing See Think Wonder and Making Thinking Visible.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So many assumptions in this post. You are first assuming that teaching quality is consistently high across all teachers at the moment, and that with reduced class sizes, teaching quality might improve. If you have had a chance to observe teachers in the classroom, you might realize that with some teachers, even giving them a 1:1 student ratio, they still can’t teach

You're still talking about the minority of teachers though. Why write policy with reference to the bottom of the barrel? How about the vast majority of teachers who are decent teachers or better, but maybe don't have insane classroom management talents and/or have a lot of students in a large class who need more personalised attention in order to flourish?

This type of classroom scenario is becoming increasingly common, what more with the wider rollout of FSBB and the encouragement of students with mild SEN to study in mainstream schools.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think there's a common agreement here that the ministry needs to do something about the system which is crippling many of the ordinary teachers (majority of the workforce) out there.

Reducing class sizes really does help a lot for an average teacher out there...



...But this post really does have a point too. Should I also add that quote a number are KPs? And they do not need to undergo lesson observations? Which worsens the problem further each year?

From a HR point of view, this problem kinda surfaced when there were massive recruitment exercises 15-20 years ago, where any random Tom Dick and Harry can get easily hired. These groups of people are currently the Gen X or boomers, some of whom are also KPs occupying space in the current system.

Going back to the big picture, it would seem that majority (and increasing too) of the challenges are now system/nationwide, rather than just problems isolated within certain schools. Everyone agrees that education is important, but because the economic value is not immediate and obvious, it seems like less resources will be invested in it?

In the past, the truly anonymous school climate survey can be weaponised against SLs or KPs if there are school wide issues. The surveys conducted now are definitely not anonymous anymore and seem to be done for the sake of doing it only. And now with issues that seem to be system/nation wide (yet seemingly swept under the carpet), is there even a channel or avenue for feedback?

Or is the only way doing extreme things like reconsidering our votes during elections?

Sorry, just doing See Think Wonder and Making Thinking Visible.

So next time when you're appointed KP and held the same appointment for decades, don't complain when you're asked to step down since you're expecting Gen X KPs to be tenured.