Breakdown of Applicants for Tamil Language Teaching Positions by Citizenship Status in Past Five Years

Dr Hamid Razak asked the Minister for Education for each of the past five years (a) how many applicants for Tamil-language teaching positions are (i) Singapore citizens or permanent residents and (ii) foreigners, respectively; and (b) how many applicants in each group are successfully recruited.

The MInistry of Education recruits teachers with the right disposition and competencies to teach. We prioritise hiring of local teachers. However, we do recruit foreign teachers for certain subjects to supplement our local teaching workforce, if we are unable to recruit enough locals. Tamil Language (TL) is one of these subjects. For foreign applicants, apart from looking at their track record and experience, we also consider their ability to assimilate into our local school context.

The number of TL teaching applications averaged about 750 annually over the past five years. About 80% of these are local applicants, with foreign applicants making up the remaining 20%. Over the same period, the success rates for local and foreign applicants were about 4% and 2% respectively. Over the same period, the success rate for local applicants was double that of foreign applicants.