Sending Teachers for Stints at Overseas Schools or for Industry Attachment

Mr Darryl David asked the Minister for Education (a) how many teachers have had professional corporate working experience outside of the teaching profession; (b) what is the average number of years of professional corporate experience that these teachers have; (c) whether the Ministry has any dedicated programmes to send teachers who have not worked outside of the teaching profession for professional corporate industry attachments; and (d) if so, how many teachers in terms of absolute numbers and percentage have undergone such industry attachment programmes.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) provides a wide range of professional development opportunities for teachers to expose them to external work experiences.

Under the Teacher Work Attachment-Plus (TWA+) programme, teachers can be attached to people, public and private sector organisations for two to four weeks. Since 2022, about 550 teachers have benefited from such attachments. In addition, MOE organises learning journeys to external organisations and themed dialogues with industry experts. Close to 6,000 teachers have participated in these sessions. Beyond TWA+, a good number of teachers have also gone on longer work attachments of two to three years through secondments to other public sector organisations.

MOE welcomes those in other industries to join the teaching profession. Around one in 10 of our teachers have at least five years of prior work experience. They bring diverse industry experiences that they can share with fellow educators and students.

MOE seconds a small number of teachers to the Singapore International School in Hong Kong for periods of three to five years. We also facilitate one-month teaching attachments to international schools in Singapore for around two to three teachers per year.