Teachers' Workload

Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the number of teaching and non-teaching hours that teachers and head of departments are required to fulfil in a week respectively; (b) what is the breakdown in the types/areas of responsibility and the time allocated for the areas that each teacher has to undertake; (c) what is the number of teachers who have resigned over the past five years; and (d) whether the Ministry tracks how many of these resignations are a result of workload-related issues.

The workload of our teachers varies across the year, depending on whether it is peak or non-peak periods. Over the entire year, our teachers teach, on average, about 15 hours per week. To deliver classroom teaching effectively, teachers also spend approximately twice as much time on teaching-related duties such as preparing for lessons, providing remediation for weaker students, setting and marking of homework and examinations.

Because of our focus on holistic education, teachers also run Co-Curricular Activities and school-based programmes for the holistic development of our students, as well as devote time to pastoral care and parent engagement.

Our heads of department have slightly lower teaching load, at an average, over the entire year, of 11 hours per week. This is because they have additional administrative and leadership responsibilities, such as planning and coordinating departmental programmes, allocating resources, as well as developing and supervising departmental staff.

The annual resignation rate for teachers has remained low at around 3% over the past five years. In our exit interviews and surveys, workload has not been cited as a major reason for leaving the Education Service. Nonetheless, we will continue to monitor the workload of teachers through internal employee feedback channels to ensure that workload is maintained within reasonable levels.

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