Nominated Member of Parliament Abdul Samad Abdul Wahab has appealed to the Government to consider a special bonus for teachers.
He said the bonus recognises teachers who manage heavy workload and stress during the pandemic.
Mr Abdul Samad was speaking at an adjournment motion in Parliament on 12 September 2022 to appreciate and support the well-being of educators.
Minister of State for Education Gan Siow Huang said that while paying educators competitively is essential, building a quality teaching service goes beyond salaries.
She added: “MOE [Ministry of Education] is committed to supporting the well-being and development of our educators. We encourage teachers to gain diverse experiences beyond the classroom so that they can broaden their perspectives and benefit from personal and professional growth.”
Mr Abdul Samad said his decision to raise the adjournment motion comes following a recent incident involving a St Andrew’s Secondary School student threatening to “end” his teacher’s life.
“I strongly believe and affirm that no student is allowed to disrespect their teacher and what more threaten in such nature?” he said.
In preparation for the adjournment motion, Mr Abdul Samad had consulted with various unionists from the Singapore Teachers’ Union, Singapore Malay Teachers’ Union, Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Union, Singapore Tamil Teachers’ Union and those that represent early childhood schools and institutes of higher learning.
He said he was surprised to learn that these unions receive more than a thousand cases of grievances alone. The grievances include managing students’ misbehaviour, abusive attacks from students’ parents, work appraisal and mental health.
In response, Ms Gan said that educators’ work includes teaching in the classroom and also inculcating good values and character.
She added: “We have set up guidelines for schools to formulate their discipline policies and approaches. School leaders take a strong stand against disrespectful behaviour towards teachers and strive to promote a safe and supportive school environment for all.”
Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay also raised suggestions during the adjournment motion to ensure the mental well-being of educators.
Mr Tay suggested that educators should be given opportunities to go on sabbaticals and gap years to go on industry attachments outside the education service to recharge and refresh their knowledge and perspectives.
He said he knows that teachers spend much time setting and preparing exam scripts for continual and semestral examinations.
He suggested that all exam papers be set at a group or cluster level for all mainstream levels to save time and ensure greater uniformity, consistency, and alignment.
In response, Ms Gan said that managing the workload of educators is an important area of focus in MOE.
She added: “To create capacity for educators, our schools are also resourced with additional staff. Every school has a team of allied educators who perform various functions, such as counselling and working with students with special educational needs. All schools have a school administration team that performs administrative and operational functions.
“We also provide funding for schools to engage vendors to help with event planning and conducting after-school enrichment activities and camps.”
She said that educators could also tap on other channels for support, such as their school’s wellness ambassadors, MOE’s in-house professional counselling services, and the 24/7 whole-of-government counselling hotline for public officers.
Ms Gan also called on parents to support educators, establish positive partnerships and set appropriate expectations on educators’ responsibilities.
Specifically, she appealed to parents to respect educators’ time by minimising non-critical communications outside work hours.
She said: “Work together with the educators to support your children’s learning and complement the learning with what can be done at home. These guidelines on school-home partnership were published by MOE in 2019 and are available online.”
