Quota for Performance Grades in Stack Ranking of Education Officers

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Education with regard to the performance management system of stack ranking (a) what is the quota for each of the grades A, B, C+, C, C-, D and E for teachers respectively; and (b) for each year in the past five years, what is the number of teachers who have gotten an A, B, C+, C, C-, D and E grade respectively.

A fair performance management system differentiates performance and rewards those who put in more effort and achieve more. Such a system reinforces good performance and also encourages those who are performing less well to improve. This has helped us to maintain a high-quality teaching workforce over time.

In an organisation like MOE where the workforce is large and deployed over many schools, it is necessary to ensure some consistency in how performance management is implemented across schools. Generally, our guidelines are that the top one-third or so officers in a ranking population will be the stronger performers and can be awarded A and B grades, while a relatively small group of about 5% would be regarded as the weaker performers and are given C-, D and E grades. The broad middle who are steady performers form about 60% and are given C+ and C grades.

Notwithstanding the ranking guidelines, there is flexibility for deviations from the guidelines, taking into consideration the performance of individual officers and specific circumstances. This ensures that the guidelines are not mechanically applied in a way that demotivates deserving officers who are doing good work.