Removal of Punitive Implications for Teachers Receiving Lower Grades Under Performance Management System of Stacked Ranking

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry will remove the punitive implications for teachers who receive lower grades under the performance management system of stacked ranking; and (b) if not, why not.

MOE, like the rest of the Civil Service, adopts a system of relative ranking from which officers can be identified for recognition and development appropriately. Those who perform their jobs well are given better performance grades and bonuses to recognise the good work that they have done. At the other end, officers who have difficulty meeting the minimum requirements of their roles are given lower performance grades and also lower or no performance bonuses. Indeed, the private sector also practices differentiated renumeration based on performance.

Regardless of performance grade, all teachers have access to the relevant in-service training programmes, such as courses to improve on their content mastery and pedagogy, which they need to carry out their professional duties. Through such professional development, we continually seek to enhance teachers' effectiveness in teaching, as this has significant impact on students' learning.

We identify weaker-performing teachers so that their supervisors can guide them on their areas for improvements and help them with their professional growth and development. However, those who fail to improve in their performance over time despite the developmental support are assessed for their suitability to remain in the Education Service.

We will continue to evolve the system based on feedback and also in close consultation with the teachers' unions to support the weaker performers, while ensuring that we maintain a high-quality teaching force  that can better guide our students in their growing years.