1. The Future of the Teaching Profession
The 2010 McKinsey Report highlighted that the success of Singapore’s education system lies in its fidelity of policy implementation, and its deliberate architecting of its future leadership. One might add that another key factor for Singapore’s success is its ability to remain flexible in its approach to reform, oscillating between “hard mandate” and “soft persuasion”. The same report lauded Singapore for being among the nations embarking on the journey from “great” to “excellent” systems.
▪ Cultivating peer-led learning for teachers and principals
– Collaborative practice
– Decentralizing pedagogical rights to schools & teachers
– Rotation and secondment programs
▪ Creating additional support mechanisms for professionals
- Release professionals from admin burden by providing additional administrative staff
▪ System-sponsored experimentation/innovation across schools
– Providing additional funding for innovation
– Sharing innovation from front-line to all schools
Mike Thiruman
Teacher

2. Teaching Profession’s Future
Potential
Content Knowledge +
Passionate about Learning
&
Learner’s future
Practice
Critical
Deliberate
Evaluated
Continuous =
Performance
Teacher
Teaching
Teaching Profession

3. The Teacher Growth Model
21st Century Teacher Outcomes
Ethical Educator
Competent Professional
Collaborative Learner
Transformational Leader
Community Builder
A key piece of the AST’s work to foster a teacher-led culture of collaborative professionalism is the Teacher Growth Model (TGM).
It is an integrated professional development model premised on the concept of growth – to allow teachers to take ownership of their own learning in order to nurture students with the 21st century competencies.
It is founded on the 21st century teacher outcomes
Every Teacher,
A Gem

4. Future of the Teaching Profession must have:
Selective Teacher Recruitment
Teacher Preparation and Development
Teachers’ Careers: Retention, Recognition and Advancement
Growing Leaders
Educators in our schools remain key to the delivery of outcomes. No system of education can be better than its teachers.
There are 4 elements to how we seek to build an excellent teaching service.
We continue to recruit quality educators and strengthen the quality of their pre-service training.
We continuously improve the craft of our teachers through professional development
We have a career structure, performance management systems and recognition frameworks that help us to keep good teachers and spur them to become even better
We systematically find school leaders from among our educators, grow them and test them over a period of time.

7. Maintaining a Rigorous Centralised Selection Process
Selecting for Quality
Maintaining a Rigorous Centralised Selection Process
Recruit based on both academic and non-academic qualities
Rigorous 4-Stage Selection Process – 1 in 10 applicants eventually recruited and deployed
Shortlist only those with minimum entry requirements, both academic and non-academic qualities
Select for breadth and depth in content knowledge, i.e. Good results at undergraduate and /or postgraduate levels, at GCE ‘A’ Level, Polytechnic Diploma or equivalent, etc.
Select for strong personal qualities, e.g. Leadership qualities, as shown through good Co-Curricular Activities record
Shortlisted candidates interviewed by a panel, chaired by an experienced senior educator
Select for aptitude, attitude and passion to teach
Experiential recruitment
Compulsory teaching stints for candidates before NIE admission (Contract Teaching, ESE, Project Classroom, TIP, TAP)
– Obtain school assessment of candidates’ suitability
– Affirmation of candidates’ interest, values and commitment
20,000 applications received
6,000 shortlisted
4,000 found suitable
2,000 recruited and successfully deployed to schools
*Currently, 85% or more candidates undergo a teaching stint before they enter NIE. The Ministry are working to increase this further.

8. Extra Support for Beginning-Teachers (BTs)
Structured Mentoring Programme BTs
Induction at HQ, Cluster and School levels
School-level mentoring & Buddy & Mentor System
Lesson observation, Conferencing & Learning Programmes for BTs
BT Dialogues provides time and space for BTs to share their concerns and network with fellow BTs
Schools are encouraged to offload BTs in their first year from a fifth of their work
We believe in supporting our teachers in their growth throughout their teaching careers.
Right from the start, extra support is given to our beginning teachers. They are called student-teachers before they graduate from NIE.
Student teachers can look forward to:
Structured mentoring programme.
They are mentored to familiarise themselves with the Ministry at HQ level, at Cluster level, and within the school.
School level mentoring comes with pairing with a mentor who is half a batch senior, to facilitate sharing
Support BT in professional growth through lesson observation, conferencing & learning programmes (such as Classroom management, basic counselling etc).
Beginning teacher dialogues: that provide ready platforms for BT to share their concerns with the school, and network.
Off-loading for their 1st year in service, by 20% 8

9. Continual Professional Development
4 Key Strategies
Championing a Strong Professional Ethos
Fostering a Teacher-Driven Culture of Professional Excellence
Creating a Culture of Continuous Learning and Improvement
Strengthening Key Enablers of Professional Development
Highlight first 3 pts will be shared by ED/AST later 9

10. Career Structure & Advancement
Principal Master Teacher
Lead Teacher
Master Teacher
Senior Teacher
Beyond pay, we seek to create teaching as a desired career that caters to the different aspirations and ambitions of our educators. We want to provide pathways so that our educators can do their best in what they want to do.
- 3 career tracks to cater to the needs of our education service and diverse interests of teachers
- Flexibility across tracks
- Recent enhancements to Teaching Track (2009)
Principal Master Teacher as new apex of Teaching Track
New appointment of Lead Teacher
Explain the 3 tracks.
How do teachers enter these tracks? We have an Open Posting framework which allows officers who have worked for at least 2-3 years, to apply for teaching positions which they have interest in, rather than having them centrally posted by MOE as before. They may move to schools within or across different levels of the education system and overseas campuses, work at MOE HQ or external organisations such as NIE. There is flexibility for officers to make lateral movements across the different career tracks as long as they satisfy the standards and criteria. The career tracks that teachers embark on are influenced by personal choices, and appraised competencies.
Teaching Track – which we had recently enhanced, but which we are reviewing now
EOs who aspire to assume key appointments as pedagogical leaders on the Teaching Track should demonstrate their ability to:
Be steeped in their subject knowledge and related pedagogies,
Deliver quality teaching and learning outcomes,
Provide for pastoral care and well-being of pupils,
Lead the professional development of other teachers and contribute to the school, and
Collaborate with parents and community stakeholders to achieve desired outcomes in education.
Officers who aspire to be Senior Teachers (STs) have to clear a selection interview with the Cluster Superintendent.
Officers who aspire to be Lead Teachers (LTs) and Master Teachers (MTTs) have to submit a professional portfolio for accreditation and clear a selection interview panel chaired by the Cluster Superintendent and the Director for Training and Development respectively.
Those who aspire to be Principal Master Teachers (PMTTs) have to deliver an oral presentation to a panel chaired by the DGE.

11. Structured Performance Appraisal
Setting targets
Setting training and
development plans
Formal mid-year review in Jun/ Jul
Monitoring
Coaching, feedback and support by
supervisor (e.g. Head of Department)
Year-end appraisal
interview
Review actual
performance against
planned performance
Evaluate performance
and potential
Multiple Input
Self
Reporting Officer
Countersigning Officer
Informal Guidance and
Coaching
Ministry/ School/ Department
Workplan
Evaluation
Planning
By Feb
By Oct
The work review process is a tool for coaching and mentoring for improvement. The work review cycle begins with a one-on-one target setting at the start of the year conducted with the teacher’s immediate supervisor, followed by a mid-year work review that is formative in nature, before the end-of-year summative review. These discussions also provide opportunities for officers to discuss with their Reporting Officers areas for improvement and plan their training, professional development needs and career aspirations accordingly.
The EPMS thus functions as a transparent and structured developmental tool for supervisors to specify areas for improvement using a common, comprehensive set of guidelines. Through this exercise, the identification of developmental and career pathways is fleshed out, and each individual officer’s growth potential can be mapped.
Evaluation is done by school leaders/KPs who are senior professionals in their own right, on the junior professionals.
By Jun/Jul

12. Recognising Good Performance
Performance-based compensation and advancement key to retain and spur talent
Supervisors use centrally-defined guidelines to assess a teacher’s performance and potential for greater responsibilities
This assessment guides career development and determines performance bonus and promotion eligibility
But compensation alone is not enough –non- monetary forms of recognition is key too
Teacher’s Day to honour teachers
President’s Award for Teachers
Singapore is one of the few education systems in the world that has implemented a performance-based compensation structure for our teachers, instead of following a seniority-based pay scale.
Performance-based compensation recognises educators’ good performances, encourages innovative teaching methods and enhances overall high quality education standards. This ensures that teachers remain motivated towards excellence, and those with stronger potential can progress to higher appointment.
If pay is not to be linked to performance, then how should it be determined? Rewarding for performance does not mean ignoring the things that good teachers do or rewarding those who “do the necessary just to achieve above-average appraisals”. Teaching creatively and effectively, going out of the way to look after the needs of their students, contributing to others’ capabilities, and partnering parents to meet the needs of students, are all explicitly recognised in the assessment of teachers.
Teachers themselves support performance based pay. The majority of the 3,300 teachers surveyed by MOE in 2008 favoured a stronger link between performance and annual increments and performance bonuses. They also favoured more individual and team awards to motivate good teachers.
Good-performing teachers can look forward to receiving a performance bonus and larger salary increments on top of their basic salaries. Typically, a good-performing classroom teacher could earn around 5-20% more than a colleague with equivalent experience and qualifications, but whose performance has just met the expectations of the job.
[For Internal Info only: Based on our salary simulations of a typical teacher (e.g. 10 years in service, GEO1A2), a C grader will get about 5-10% more than a D grader, while an A grader could get up to 20% more.]
Officers are ranked against their peers and given a performance grading in an annual exercise.  Officers who have not met the minimal expectations of their job will be given an 'E' grade, and will be placed on a review process to ensure that they are counselled and coached to improve their performance. If the officer shows no signs of improvement within the next year while they are on the review process, then their services are liable to be terminated.
McKinsey noted that “it takes two to three years for top talent to deliver in the classroom, and that compensation boosts once effectiveness (of teachers) is demonstrated are essential for retention”. In the same vein, timely promotions for teachers with the potential to assume higher-level responsibilities, and the accompanying salary adjustments helps to maintain job satisfaction. [[Promotions are awarded to teachers who are already performing at the level and efficacy of the next higher rank, and performance-bonuses are awarded based on measuring the officer’s performance against the level of his/her current grade. ]]
[[Apart from an officer’s current performance, MOE assesses officers on their potential and estimate how the highest level of responsibility they are capable of handling competently. The concept of potential is adjusted along an officer’s career advancement, and helps identify and plan the officer’s training and development possibilities; plan the officer’s career advancement opportunities in terms of postings and assignments; and helps the organisation conduct succession planning. The Education Service conducts its promotion exercise annually. In considering an officer for promotion, consistent demonstration of potential and performance needs to be observed. ]]
On top of this, schools have a role to play in recognising their teachers. For instance, to recognise individual staff and teams that have made value-added contributions to the school, MOE provide monetary support in the form of a grant, for schools to disburse the outstanding contribution awards (OCA) to their deserving teachers. The cash quantum ranges from $3,000 (US$2,300) for individuals, and between $3,000 – $10,000 ($US2,300 – US$7,800) for teams.
Teachers’ contributions are also recognised at a systemic-level in non-monetary ways. For example, Singapore honours teaching’s role in society by observing Teacher’s Day annually on 1 September as a designated school holiday. On the same day, The President’s Award for teachers is given out by the President at the Istana to recognise the contributions of outstanding teachers who have been nominated by their peers.

13. The Future of the Teaching Profession?
“The quality of an Education System cannot exceed the Quality of its Teachers”
Attracting and rigorously selecting high quality teachers is key
Teacher professional development – pre-Service and continual – is critical to building professionalism and a teacher-led culture of excellence
Competitive remuneration, performance-based recognition, multiple career pathways and structured performance management are key to retain, spur and guide the development of good teachers
Good leaders are critical, and need to be systematically identified, groomed and appraised over time

14. Thank You Mike Thiruman President Singapore Teachers’ Union