Keeping The Teaching Profession Attractive: Higher Pay, Faster Promotion For Mid-Career Teachers
KEEPING THE TEACHING PROFESSION ATTRACTIVE:
HIGHER PAY, FASTER PROMOTION FOR MID-CAREER TEACHERS
1. As part of the ongoing programme to grow and diversify the teaching force, the Ministry of Education will enhance the salary and promotion prospects of mid-career teachers from Jan 2008.
MOE values the knowledge and experience that mid-career teachers bring to the profession. The enhancements will ensure that their contributions are recognised, in line with those of their peers who joined the teaching profession as their first career.
2. The pay and progression of new mid-career teachers will be adjusted such that they will be able to catch up with their peers by their 4th year as a trained teacher. This is considerably faster than is currently the case. This will be done through higher starting salaries, faster promotions and additional salary increments upon promotion. Existing mid-career teachers can also look forward to faster promotions and additional salary increments to similarly close the gap between them and their peers in service.
3. There are currently 6,600 mid-career officers with 1 year or more of past working experience prior to joining the teaching profession. They make up about 22% of the Education Service. On average, another 680 mid-career teachers join the profession every year. Many of our mid-career officers are contributing positively to our schools and a considerable number have taken up key positions in schools and
MOE Headquarters. School leaders have given feedback that these mid-career teachers have injected a greater diversity of experiences and perspectives into the learning environment for our students.
4. The announcement was made by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education, at the
MOE Work Plan Seminar 2007 on 2 Oct 2007.
New Mid-Career Teachers
5. The following enhancements will apply to all new mid-career teachers appointed on or after Jan 2008.
Higher Starting Salaries
6. Under the current policy, the Ministry recognises fully (100 percent) the years of past teaching experience of mid-career entrants for starting salary computation. Non-teaching work experience is recognised partially, at 50 percent. Under the revised policy, a greater proportion, up to 80 percent, of non-teaching work experience of mid-career teachers will be recognised for starting salary computation. Past teaching experience will continue to be recognised fully.
Higher Entry Grade After
NIE Training
7. Graduate entrants with 3 or more years of prior work experience could be directly appointed on the GEO1A1 scale of the Education Service, after training at the National Institute of Education (
NIE). This is one grade higher than the current entry grades of GEO 1.1 for trained teachers.
Faster Promotion and Additional Increments
8. New mid-career teachers will have faster promotion prospects to bring them on par with their peers who took up teaching as their first career immediately after graduation. They may also have additional pay increments upon promotion.
9. Examples to illustrate the progression for new mid-career teachers are at Annex A.
Existing Mid-Career Teachers
10.
MOE will similarly close the gap between existing mid-career teachers and their peers in the service through salary adjustments based on their years of previous non-teaching work experience. With the adjustments, all existing mid-career teachers should catch up with their peers over the next 6 years, with more than 90% of them catching up within the next 4 years.
Faster Promotion and Additional Increments
11. Existing mid-career teachers will enjoy faster promotion prospects to bring them on par with their peers who joined the teaching profession as their first career after graduation. They may also have additional pay increments upon promotion.
12.
MOE will inform all eligible mid-career officers individually by end Feb 2008.
Annex A
Examples of Progression for New Mid-Career Teachers
Ms Ng is a Good Honours degree holder who has worked for 5 years in the private sector. Her last drawn salary was $4,200. She decides to join teaching in 2008. Under the current policy, she would be offered a starting salary of $3,172 as a trainee teacher in
NIE. With the revised policy, her starting salary will be $3,347. Upon graduation from
NIE in 2009 and subject to good performance, she is placed on the General Education Officer (GEO) 1A1 grade directly (instead of GEO 1.1) and given additional salary increments, to bring her salary to $4,100. This is the same pay as her peer who joined the teaching profession immediately upon graduation.
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Mr Tan is a Pass degree holder who has worked for 11 years in both the public and private sectors, with his last job being a deputy director in a statutory board. His last drawn salary was $4,500. He decides to join teaching in 2008. Under the current policy, he would be offered a starting salary of $3,697 as a trainee teacher in
NIE. With the revised policy, his starting salary will be $4,221. Upon graduation from
NIE in 2009 and subject to good performance, he is placed on the General Education Officer (GEO) 1A1 grade directly (instead of GEO 1.1) and given additional salary increments, to bring his salary to $4,836. With good performance, he can be further promoted to GEO 1A2 grade in 2010 with a salary of $5,373. This would be in line with his peer who joined the teaching profession immediately upon graduation.
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[1] Mid-career teachers are those with at least 1 year of prior full-time work experience outside the teaching profession.
[2] A peer refers here to a teacher who is of about the same age as the mid-career entrant and who has the same profile (e.g. academic qualifications, performance and potential.)
