Helping Teachers to GROW
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Grow 2.0 unveils new incentives to boost the number of teachers.
To keep the teaching career attractive to both new and serving teachers, the Ministry of Education has unveiled Grow 2.0 - a new package of incentives that offers teachers greater rewards, career advancement, professional development and well-being.
The Grow 2.0 package builds upon the foundation of the GROW package announced in September 2006, and it is hoped that this initiative will also help to draw more able individuals into teaching, and boost the number of teachers from the present 29,000 to 30,000 by 2010. This will make it possible to raise the pupil-teacher ratio by 15%. As Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance & Minister for Education, said at the Appointment Ceremony for Principals on 28 December 2007, this will mean “more good well-trained teachers in every school, with more time and space to devise and deliver the best teaching for their pupils.”
As Singapore is enjoying a robust economy, there is now stronger competition for talent. To address this through Grow 2.0, good performing teachers can expect to see their annual income rise by up to 12%, while an 18% increase awaits better performing individuals. Teachers who opt into the new scheme will be placed on a salary range system with merit increments based on individual performance, potential and market wage movements. This will replace the current salary scale system with fixed annual increments. Teachers can also expect higher performance bonuses with sharper differentiation in payouts based on performance.
Teachers will have more support from MOE for upgrading their qualifications.
Enabling and encouraging teachers to do more
Apart from financial rewards, teachers keen to upgrade themselves can look forward to greater support from the Ministry. The key changes include an increase in the study loan quantum for local full-time studies; higher reimbursements of fees for part-time Masters courses; annual study grants of $9,000 to $12,000 for local or overseas undergraduate or postgraduate full-time studies; plus scholarship awards for postgraduate studies in both teaching and curriculum-related subjects.
Non-graduate teachers who take part-time degree programmes will have a wider selection of courses available to them. Apart from the present 27 SIM University part-time degrees, they can now sign up for part-time degree courses at NUS and NTU and other part-time degrees currently offered by SIM University. And as some teachers take time off from work to pursue their studies, MOE will support schools by adding up to five more teacher posts for each school cluster, to ensure that schools can continue to operate smoothly.
With more teachers in every school, they will have more time and space to plan lessons and activities.
In addition, Senior Specialists will have enhanced career development opportunities. Senior Specialists play an important role in supporting our teachers and school leaders with their deep knowledge and skills in areas like curriculum and instructional design, educational psychology, educational testing, measurement and research. The number of Senior Specialist posts in MOE HQ will be almost doubled to 310, and a new Chief Specialist post will be created. MOE will also provide $1.5 million a year to support Senior Specialists in their research projects, and they can devote up to 20% of their time to research-related work.
“The key strength of the Singapore education system is our people,” notes Mr Shanmugaratnam. “Quality teachers and quality school leaders are quite simply what has brought us to where we are as a leading education system, and what will take us forward.” With Grow 2.0, Singapore is set to draw more qualified and motivated individuals to help nurture the minds and movers who will propel Singapore to greater heights.
For more details, read the MOE press release, "Putting People at the Centre of the Education Enterprise".