Measures to Improve Work-Life Balance Among Teachers

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Education whether the Ministry is considering other measures besides pay increase to enhance the working conditions for teachers including concerns over workload and long hours, such as adding more staff.

Ms Hany Soh asked the Minister for Education (a) apart from salary increment, whether the Ministry has also looked into ways to ease teachers' workloads and improve their mental well-being in order to attract and retain talents; and (b) whether the Ministry will be working with relevant agencies to ensure that the salary increment and benefits will also apply to MOE-seconded teachers in special education schools.

Mr Speaker, Sir, first, let me thank Members of this House for the concern over the well-being of our educators. MOE is mindful that the quality of education depends on the strength of our teaching force, and teachers' well-being is critically important to our mission to teach, inspire and nurture future generations. We are heartened by the public support for the salary and benefits adjustments to MOE-specific schemes, so that our educators continue to be competitively remunerated. These adjustments will apply to all MOE staff, including MOE teachers seconded to other agencies such as special education schools.

Mr Speaker, Sir, having said that, building a quality teaching service goes beyond salaries and benefits. MOE values our teachers, and pays close attention to their well-being and work-life balance. Many of our dedicated teachers go above and beyond the call of duty for our students. To help teachers manage their workload, we have supported schools and teachers by streamlining administrative processes such as taking attendance electronically, centrally providing services such as demand aggregation for common purchases and giving schools greater flexibility to pace the implementation of new initiatives. This allows teachers to focus their time on student-centric work, including CCAs and counselling.

Schools have also implemented more flexible work arrangements for teachers where feasible, while maintaining the duty of care towards students. This includes holding virtual or hybrid afternoon meetings where meaningful and effective and allowing teachers to leave school when they have no further duties that require them to be in school. Teachers who require greater flexibility in work hours can also apply for part-time teaching arrangements.

Schools' Staff Well-Being Committees have also been provided with more resources to enhance staff well-being, such as additional Staff Welfare Funds and in-house curated resources to help them organise meaningful programmes for staff. Teachers may also take part in well-being workshops, talks and webinars and access online resources to help learn about self-care and support for one another.

Teachers are encouraged to share their concerns with their supervisors and school leaders or with the superintendent overseeing their school. They can also tap on other channels for support, such as the school’s Wellness Ambassadors, MOE’s in-house professional counselling services and the 24/7 whole-of-Government counselling hotline.

Beyond MOE and schools, our parents and other stakeholders can also play critical roles in supporting our teachers’ well-being. For example, by respecting teachers’ personal time and minimising non-critical communication with teachers outside work hours, parents and the public can also work closely with teachers to establish positive partnerships and set appropriate expectations on the teachers’ responsibilities for our children’s development.

MOE will continue to work with school leaders and the public to keep workload manageable for our teachers and to support their well-being. This will ensure that teaching continues to be a meaningful and fulfilling career and that we can continue to attract and retain good teachers to help mould the future of our nation.

I thank the Minister for his answers. First, we fully support what the Ministry has been doing. All of us in this House would have spoken to or know many teachers who are in the service. Teachers love to teach. What they do not like is the administrative part of things and my first supplementary question to the Minister is that we continue to focus more on the relentless effort to reduce their administrative duties because less is always more.

I am also happy to note that the Minister talked about how parents can help in this. This is one area which I hope that, for the many parents out there, beyond saying what parents could help, maybe we could consider drawing clear boundaries on where parents should not or cannot do because I think many teachers that I spoke to also said that one of the things that stress them is what parents are imposing on them, either directly or indirectly. So, could the Minister consider drawing up a very clear set of rules on what can and cannot be done, as far as parents are concerned, to the teachers?

Mr Speaker, Sir, let me thank Mr Seah Kian Peng for his comments. Indeed, on the first supplementary question, we will continue to do what we can to recruit more quality teachers for our education system. We will also do what we can to recruit more allied educators to help our teachers in taking care of the school and the children. But let me maybe just put in context some of the progress that we have made.

If we look at the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) – not the parent-teacher ratio – in 2010, the PTR for Primary school was about 19; in 2020, we were at about 15. For Secondary schools, our PTR in 2010 was about 16; in 2020, we were at about 12. So, we have made progress and we hope to be able to continue to recruit good quality teachers to take care of our students. For the allied educators, in 2017, we had about 960; in 2021, we had about 1,300. So, we do what we can to try to improve the numbers.

The second part is that we also want to streamline many of the processes that we have so that we do not take up this capacity because one of the challenges that we have now is that we have to reinvest the capacity in helping our teachers themselves grow and learn so that they can bring on board with them new experiences, new perspectives to enrich the teaching of our students.

At the same time, as suggested by Mr Seah Kian Peng, we also have higher-needs students and families and special needs children that we want to take better care of, and we also need to manage the socioemotional development of many more children and families. So, these are places where we need to reinvest the capacity.

On the Member's second supplementary question about the rules for parents – if you like, the dos and don'ts – yes, indeed, MOE has a set of rules and guidelines for all our schools. We communicate these rules to the public and our parents and we hope that our parents will also work with the schools to bring this about.

If I may say so, I would like to put in context that not all parents are difficult. We certainly have our fair share of them. But, perhaps, one difficult parent can take up a substantial amount of time from the teachers, which then makes it unfair for the teachers to take care of the rest. But just to pay tribute to some of the parent support groups which have done well in this. We have many examples of parent support groups – and I have met them recently – who have come forward to help the teachers and the schools to manage many of these things – from curriculum to how to role model a positive relationship between parents and teachers. For example, Admiralty Secondary School, Crest Secondary School and Fuhua Primary School all have very strong parent support groups which work with the teachers to bring about a better outcome in our schools.

At the same time, we also have many schools with very strong alumni groups which have also contributed much to the schools to alleviate the load on the teachers as well. But having said that, it is true that there are some parents who may not abide by some of the rules in this code of conduct that we have mentioned. Some negative examples would be like going after the teachers for the slightest of issues which require the teachers to spend an inordinate amount of time to try to answer those questions.

Once, I met a principal and she told me that she has to deploy her teachers on "corridor" duties. I asked "What are corridor duties?" I understand canteen duties. But I was a bit intrigued by corridor duties. And she said that, "Well, just in case the child falls down and the parents want to know what happened. So, we must be around to see. Otherwise, the parents might be quite upset."

So, I think we need to have shared expectations of what we expect from our teachers and what we should not expect our teachers to do. Perhaps, in the larger scheme of things, sometimes, it is useful for us to take a step back and ask ourselves what is the kind of environment we want in the schools in order for us to bring up our children who are independent, resilient and creative. And, sometimes, if we overdo things by removing all uncertainties, difficulties and untidiness from the child's life, it may not be the best way for us to bring up our children.

On the other hand, when a child encounters a difficulty and if we, as parents, prematurely step in too often, it may also deprive our children of the ability to deal with some of these difficult situations, including working in teams for project work. So, we take Mr Seah Kian Peng's points very seriously because such clear expectations on the roles of the teachers are very important for that healthy relationship between parents and teachers and, at the same time, for our teachers to manage their time well.

Speaker, I thank the Minister for his answers. I have two supplementary questions.

Firstly, I would like to ask the Minister whether there are any plans to review our current teacher recruitment efforts to attract more people to join teaching as a profession.

Secondly, the Minister talked about enhancing the resources. I would like to ask specifically whether there are any plans to review and enhance administrative non-teaching manpower resources in schools so as to reduce the workload on teachers.

Mr Speaker, Sir, on the first question on teacher recruitment, MOE has been very fortunate that we have been able to recruit our fair share of teachers and to hold up the quality bar because the quantity and the quality must come together. So, we have been pretty fortunate and will continue to intensify efforts to make sure that we continue to have a fair share of the best people in every cohort to become teachers.

Of course, all Members of the House would know that, as we speak now, the labour market is tight. Our people have many choices. But we will still want to have our fair share of talent invested in the Education Service, just like how our forefathers did, because we believe that this is the best investment for the next generation – to put a fair share of the best people into the teaching service so that we can groom the next generation and we will continue to do that.

But having said that, I think it goes beyond the pay. It is about systems, culture, how we respect our teachers that engender more who want to join the service in service of our children and nation. So, we will continue to do that.

On the second supplementary question, I have addressed it earlier. Yes, we will continue to recruit more people to help out in the non-teaching tasks. But having said that, we will also work to streamline our own processes to make sure that we make the best use of the resources available, besides the structures and organisation issues, then we go back to the issues of how we build this shared relationship with parents and the community to bring out the best in our children.

I thank the Minister for sharing the examples of efforts to ease the workload of our MOE teachers as well as to address their mental well-being. My supplementary question pertains to seeking the Minister to share whether more of such benefits will also apply to the MOE-seconded teachers in Special Education Schools.

The answer is yes.