Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If there is any MOE HR personnel here, kindly ensure that the spirit behind Eat with Family Day is understood and enacted in schools. Many teachers are resigning to become FAJT because the so-called basic care and respect in schools are really non existent.

Despite the fact that today is Eat with Family Day, the HOD still what app in the group chat at 6pm. The irony is the SLs had just reiterated the rules of communication during Contact Time. The content of the message is not important and urgent. If an email were to be sent out during the weekend and no immediate action is needed, what is the purpose of texting in a group chat? To remind passive-aggressively? The biggest joke is the HOD had never email anything after the meetings or even internal marking exercise throughout the year, and an email on the last day of the school year is that important? This HOD is also a constant MOE award winner. A sneak preview of 2024 plans and inviting suggestions/ideas from people can hold till next week. So why the need to comm in a whats app chat group. Why are these type of KPs so highly regarded and is there fairness in this system? This is also a HOD who has placed learning journey on the last day of the previous term. Well, perhaps the activity had ended at 4.30pm on a safe note but teachers on the ground really felt "squeezed" to no "juice" left. A mesaage to mention that there was no better alternative dates could be communicated at her side and this would perhaps soften people's heart. Seriously no emotional intelligence at all.

Yes, zero emotional intelligence. In my school, Eat with Family Day is not even mentioned nor enacted. In fact, we have monthly staff bonding day where we are forced to attend no matter how busy we are. If we can't attend, we have to email the SLs with valid reasons, attendance is tracked. What a painful staff bonding this has become. And monthly, really? We don't even enjoy them. We tried to voice this out, only to get the SLs retorted we should instead be appreciative to get this opportunity arranged for us to step away from work and spend 3 hours bonding. Thing is, the amount of work remains and deadlines don't move, they don't vanish. So we are expected to manage our time, as though we haven't been doing that. In this sense, we lost 3 hours of sleep in order to catch up with work. SLs even bragged about how we are all so well taken care of. And if I recall correctly, isn't there supposed to be a semesterly focus day, a whitespace? It seems like this too has been taken away.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If there is any MOE HR personnel here, kindly ensure that the spirit behind Eat with Family Day is understood and enacted in schools. Many teachers are resigning to become FAJT because the so-called basic care and respect in schools are really non existent.

Not so easy life for the FAJTs in my school. Their timetable is so packed with lessons and duties and on top of that they have to do relief. Last year an FAJT went to P to complain but nothing's changed. Turnover of FAJTs is also quite high.

As a system, nobody is brave enough to cut work. We are cutting headcount like crazy, but we are too scared to slaughter any of our sacred cows. Everything is a sacred cow and everything is tied for No. 1 on the priority list. There is no political will or management will to de-prioritise anything. Too bad for us, I guess. We want to do more and more and more, yet we have less and less and less resources as the years go on.

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?

If many teachers under this HOD genuinely felt squeezed and used - I think the SL would take note- especially if some suggested in the feedback of wanting to raise to emcare

Talking about cutting headcount, is this due to smaller enrolment now? So the powers that be up the number of programmes and initiatives? We were told that in 2024, after school programmes will increase even more. The more FAJTs in the department, the more teachers have to do multiple programmes since the FAJTs leave at dismissal.

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is a myth lol that is circulated among teachers. ROs and even SLs have little control over promotions as it’s centrally decided by HR using a deterministic algorithm. What the panel can do is to raise CEP to accelerate promotions.

I'm intrigued by this "deterministic algorithm". Can someone please shed some light on what this algorithm about?

I was promoted to GEO3 immediately upon completion of PGDE. I understand this is a central decision by HR, taking into account my previous work experience (>10 years).

1. To begin teaching in a school at GEO3, does that mean I am on a "fast-track"?
2. How long will it likely take for me to be promoted to GEO4?
3. Will the promotion now depend on my work performance (ranking), or again decided by HR based on my previous work experience?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If there is any MOE HR personnel here, kindly ensure that the spirit behind Eat with Family Day is understood and enacted in schools. Many teachers are resigning to become FAJT because the so-called basic care and respect in schools are really non existent.

Despite the fact that today is Eat with Family Day, the HOD still what app in the group chat at 6pm. The irony is the SLs had just reiterated the rules of communication during Contact Time. The content of the message is not important and urgent. If an email were to be sent out during the weekend and no immediate action is needed, what is the purpose of texting in a group chat? To remind passive-aggressively? The biggest joke is the HOD had never email anything after the meetings or even internal marking exercise throughout the year, and an email on the last day of the school year is that important? This HOD is also a constant MOE award winner. A sneak preview of 2024 plans and inviting suggestions/ideas from people can hold till next week. So why the need to comm in a whats app chat group. Why are these type of KPs so highly regarded and is there fairness in this system? This is also a HOD who has placed learning journey on the last day of the previous term. Well, perhaps the activity had ended at 4.30pm on a safe note but teachers on the ground really felt "squeezed" to no "juice" left. A mesaage to mention that there was no better alternative dates could be communicated at her side and this would perhaps soften people's heart. Seriously no emotional intelligence at all.

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

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. Selfish.