Chan Chun Sing
Singapore
“Since 2002, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has worked with the autonomous universities (AUs) to establish arrangements that minimise disruption to National Servicemen (NSmen) who are pursuing full-time studies up to the undergraduate level, while meeting the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF's) operational and training needs.”
“Secondments help to build up the range of competencies and work experiences of public officers to strengthen their longer-term employment relevance and resilience. The Public Service Division's guideline to agencies is to support public officers even while they are on secondment.”
“The priority of our National Servicemen must be their military duties and operational training, to meet the Singapore Armed Forces's (SAF's) operational requirements.”
“In January 2026, I had informed this House that the Government had convened an independent committee to conduct a review of the political salary framework that was laid out in 2012. The Committee has completed the review and submitted its recommendations to the Government in April.”
“All countries seek to develop mutually beneficial partnerships, and the United States-Indonesia Major Defence Cooperation Partnership is one such example.”
“Since the Singapore Armed Forces Volunteer Corps (SAFVC) was established in 2014, over 1,500 men and women have completed training and served as SAFVC Volunteers (SVs). Presently, there are about 1,100 in-service SVs, comprising 52% male and 48% female. About seven in 10 of our in-service SVs are new Citizens or Permanent Residents.”
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“With the easing of community and border restriction measures, the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have gradually resumed overseas exposure programmes for students. These programmes range from a few days to half a year, and include immersion programmes, academic trips, exchange programmes and internships. For the Academic Year 2022, around 6,200 IHL students will participate in overseas exposure programmes. This translates to about 16% of the annual participants pre-COVID. We plan to ramp up the number of overseas exposure programmes significantly over the next couple of years. As part of the pre-trip preparations to ensure that students are ready for their overseas exposure programmes, the IHLs brief students beforehand on key issues such as personal safety, travel insurance coverage and how to navigate the overseas environment. Students are also reminded to conduct themselves in a responsible manner and to abide by local laws and Singapore’s extra-territorial laws, which include prohibitions against the consumption of drugs.”
“Some 12,000 individuals request a statement of their results from the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board every year, mostly for their GCE O-level results. This is for job applications or admissions to education institutions. With the launch of this digital service, individuals with Singpass would be able to retrieve and share these digital certificates from their Skills Passports in MySkillsFuture accounts. This provides customer convenience and raises administrative efficiency at the agencies.”
“The Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) regularly review their course offerings and curricula, including aligning curricula to relevant skills frameworks and industry transformation maps where appropriate. The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics conduct annual reviews of curricula at individual course and module levels, with more in-depth institutional reviews of curricula and delivery of courses conducted around every three years. Programmes that adopt work-study modalities require partnership with industry, to co-develop the curriculum. The Autonomous Universities (AUs) also conduct regular reviews of their course curricula through their academic advisory boards every two to five years. For courses in sectors such as Information and Communications Technology, reviews are conducted more frequently given the fast-changing nature of industry. All our institutions also benefit from the presence of industry leaders on their advisory panels, and feedback from economic agencies and industry associations. MOE will continue to work with our institutions to meet future industry needs.”
“MOE takes a serious view of bullying and works with schools to send a clear message to all students that hurtful behaviour has no place in our schools. The number of bullying incidents reported to schools remains low and stable, at about two incidents per 1000 primary students and five incidents per 1000 secondary students in the past five years.”
“We note Mr Louis Ng had raised similar issues pertaining to the ranking and appraisal of teachers on several occasions. As we have responded previously, MOE takes guidance from the Public Service Division on the guidelines for staff performance appraisal and ranking. The appraisal and ranking system seeks to recognise and reward officers according to their work performance. Performance quotas are adopted to enable meaningful differentiation, while maintaining discipline and consistency across the system. On balance, the current system continues to serve its purpose. And we will continually review our system to ensure that it remains relevant.”
“The MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) provides financial support for Singapore Citizen (SC) students from lower income families in our government and government-aided schools. This includes school bus subsidies for those in primary school. These are available to all primary school FAS students. As announced on 24 August 2022, MOE will increase school bus subsidies for primary school FAS students, from 60% to 65% of school bus fees. This enhancement, together with other MOE FAS enhancements, will take effect from January 2023. Households who need additional support for school bus transport or other education-related expenses, including those who have exceeded the MOE FAS income eligibility criteria, can approach schools for school-based assistance.”
“On average over the last three years, MOE received about 300 appeals per year from parents seeking to admit their children to primary schools located near their homes. This represents about 1% of the total number of Primary 1 (P1) students enrolled in each year’s registration exercise. MOE regularly reviews the planning of places in our primary schools, taking into consideration demand and supply trends at the national and regional levels and planned housing development programmes. Public feedback and appeals are also factored in our reviews.”
“MOE regularly reviews the demand and supply trends for school places at the national and regional levels. Our school planning takes into account the current and projected population, and planned housing development programmes. This ensures that there are sufficient school places to meet the needs of families with school-going children in each residential area. We have been monitoring the P1 demand and supply situation in MacPherson closely and make year-by-year intake adjustments for schools in these areas where appropriate to meet the projected demand, arising from the new housing developments. There are sufficient places in MacPherson to meet the demand from residents at this year’s P1 Registration Exercise. At the end of Phase 2C (Supplementary), there were still 90 P1 remaining places in nearby schools in MacPherson. MOE will continue to closely monitor the demand and supply trends for the coming years, and if necessary, adjust the P1 intake to meet the projected demand.”
“The SkillsFuture Credit scheme is part of a range of programmes and initiatives introduced by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) to support individuals in their skills development and lifelong learning. As of June 2022, about 29% of eligible Singaporeans aged 25 and above have utilised their Credit. As the SkillsFuture Credit is intended to encourage all Singaporeans to learn for life and to take personal ownership of their lifelong learning journey, credits are not transferable between individuals. To help ensure that Singaporeans can continue to meet their training needs, the Government has provided a one-off SkillsFuture Credit top-up of $500 for Singaporeans aged 25 and above in 2020, as well as an additional $500 SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career Support) for Singaporeans aged 40 to 60. Those who have expended their credits continue to benefit from substantial course fee subsidies of up to 90% that the Government provides for many courses.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, on the first question on teacher recruitment, MOE has been very fortunate that we have been able to recruit our fair share of teachers and to hold up the quality bar because the quantity and the quality must come together. So, we have been pretty fortunate and will continue to intensify efforts to make sure that we continue to have a fair share of the best people in every cohort to become teachers. Of course, all Members of the House would know that, as we speak now, the labour market is tight. Our people have many choices. But we will still want to have our fair share of talent invested in the Education Service, just like how our forefathers did, because we believe that this is the best investment for the next generation – to put a fair share of the best people into the teaching service so that we can groom the next generation and we will continue to do that. But having said that, I think it goes beyond the pay. It is about systems, culture, how we respect our teachers that engender more who want to join the service in service of our children and nation. So, we will continue to do that. On the second supplementary question, I have addressed it earlier. Yes, we will continue to recruit more people to help out in the non-teaching tasks. But having said that, we will also work to streamline our own processes to make sure that we make the best use of the resources available, besides the structures and organisation issues, then we go back to the issues of how we build this shared relationship with parents and the community to bring out the best in our children.”
“And she said that, "Well, just in case the child falls down and the parents want to know what happened. So, we must be around to see. Otherwise, the parents might be quite upset." So, I think we need to have shared expectations of what we expect from our teachers and what we should not expect our teachers to do. Perhaps, in the larger scheme of things, sometimes, it is useful for us to take a step back and ask ourselves what is the kind of environment we want in the schools in order for us to bring up our children who are independent, resilient and creative. And, sometimes, if we overdo things by removing all uncertainties, difficulties and untidiness from the child's life, it may not be the best way for us to bring up our children. On the other hand, when a child encounters a difficulty and if we, as parents, prematurely step in too often, it may also deprive our children of the ability to deal with some of these difficult situations, including working in teams for project work. So, we take Mr Seah Kian Peng's points very seriously because such clear expectations on the roles of the teachers are very important for that healthy relationship between parents and teachers and, at the same time, for our teachers to manage their time well.”
“We communicate these rules to the public and our parents and we hope that our parents will also work with the schools to bring this about. If I may say so, I would like to put in context that not all parents are difficult. We certainly have our fair share of them. But, perhaps, one difficult parent can take up a substantial amount of time from the teachers, which then makes it unfair for the teachers to take care of the rest. But just to pay tribute to some of the parent support groups which have done well in this. We have many examples of parent support groups – and I have met them recently – who have come forward to help the teachers and the schools to manage many of these things – from curriculum to how to role model a positive relationship between parents and teachers. For example, Admiralty Secondary School, Crest Secondary School and Fuhua Primary School all have very strong parent support groups which work with the teachers to bring about a better outcome in our schools. At the same time, we also have many schools with very strong alumni groups which have also contributed much to the schools to alleviate the load on the teachers as well. But having said that, it is true that there are some parents who may not abide by some of the rules in this code of conduct that we have mentioned. Some negative examples would be like going after the teachers for the slightest of issues which require the teachers to spend an inordinate amount of time to try to answer those questions. Once, I met a principal and she told me that she has to deploy her teachers on "corridor" duties. I asked "What are corridor duties?" I understand canteen duties. But I was a bit intrigued by corridor duties.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, let me thank Mr Seah Kian Peng for his comments. Indeed, on the first supplementary question, we will continue to do what we can to recruit more quality teachers for our education system. We will also do what we can to recruit more allied educators to help our teachers in taking care of the school and the children. But let me maybe just put in context some of the progress that we have made. If we look at the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) – not the parent-teacher ratio – in 2010, the PTR for Primary school was about 19; in 2020, we were at about 15. For Secondary schools, our PTR in 2010 was about 16; in 2020, we were at about 12. So, we have made progress and we hope to be able to continue to recruit good quality teachers to take care of our students. For the allied educators, in 2017, we had about 960; in 2021, we had about 1,300. So, we do what we can to try to improve the numbers. The second part is that we also want to streamline many of the processes that we have so that we do not take up this capacity because one of the challenges that we have now is that we have to reinvest the capacity in helping our teachers themselves grow and learn so that they can bring on board with them new experiences, new perspectives to enrich the teaching of our students. At the same time, as suggested by Mr Seah Kian Peng, we also have higher-needs students and families and special needs children that we want to take better care of, and we also need to manage the socioemotional development of many more children and families. So, these are places where we need to reinvest the capacity. On the Member's second supplementary question about the rules for parents – if you like, the dos and don'ts – yes, indeed, MOE has a set of rules and guidelines for all our schools.”
“Schools' Staff Well-Being Committees have also been provided with more resources to enhance staff well-being, such as additional Staff Welfare Funds and in-house curated resources to help them organise meaningful programmes for staff. Teachers may also take part in well-being workshops, talks and webinars and access online resources to help learn about self-care and support for one another. Teachers are encouraged to share their concerns with their supervisors and school leaders or with the superintendent overseeing their school. They can also tap on other channels for support, such as the school’s Wellness Ambassadors, MOE’s in-house professional counselling services and the 24/7 whole-of-Government counselling hotline. Beyond MOE and schools, our parents and other stakeholders can also play critical roles in supporting our teachers’ well-being. For example, by respecting teachers’ personal time and minimising non-critical communication with teachers outside work hours, parents and the public can also work closely with teachers to establish positive partnerships and set appropriate expectations on the teachers’ responsibilities for our children’s development. MOE will continue to work with school leaders and the public to keep workload manageable for our teachers and to support their well-being. This will ensure that teaching continues to be a meaningful and fulfilling career and that we can continue to attract and retain good teachers to help mould the future of our nation.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, first, let me thank Members of this House for the concern over the well-being of our educators. MOE is mindful that the quality of education depends on the strength of our teaching force, and teachers' well-being is critically important to our mission to teach, inspire and nurture future generations. We are heartened by the public support for the salary and benefits adjustments to MOE-specific schemes, so that our educators continue to be competitively remunerated. These adjustments will apply to all MOE staff, including MOE teachers seconded to other agencies such as special education schools. Mr Speaker, Sir, having said that, building a quality teaching service goes beyond salaries and benefits. MOE values our teachers, and pays close attention to their well-being and work-life balance. Many of our dedicated teachers go above and beyond the call of duty for our students. To help teachers manage their workload, we have supported schools and teachers by streamlining administrative processes such as taking attendance electronically, centrally providing services such as demand aggregation for common purchases and giving schools greater flexibility to pace the implementation of new initiatives. This allows teachers to focus their time on student-centric work, including CCAs and counselling. Schools have also implemented more flexible work arrangements for teachers where feasible, while maintaining the duty of care towards students. This includes holding virtual or hybrid afternoon meetings where meaningful and effective and allowing teachers to leave school when they have no further duties that require them to be in school. Teachers who require greater flexibility in work hours can also apply for part-time teaching arrangements.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take the three questions – Question Nos 27 to 29 – together, please?”
“SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) has started engaging affected employers whose actual payments of Skills Development Levy (SDL) differ from their estimated SDL liabilities. Such variance can occur due to actual underpayments, or because employers used an updated set of local and foreign employee data at the point of SDL payment, in which case there is no underpayment. SSG will contact all affected employers by the end of this financial year. All public sector employers have paid in full their estimated underpayments. Until the process is completed, SSG is unable to conclusively provide the breakdown of private companies involved at this juncture. There is no concern of affected companies accessing the SkillsFuture Credit of their employees because companies cannot claim SkillsFuture Credit on behalf of their employees for training purposes.”
“SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) has taken immediate corrective action. As at 1 August 2022, SSG has contacted all affected training providers, companies and individuals for the necessary recovery. The lapses observed by AGO were primarily due to wrong declarations by the grant applicants and errors in manual processing of grants. SSG's remediation focus is, hence, on taking measures to reduce reliance on declarations and manual processing. SSG will tighten its audits on payments disbursed and on the work of its service provider. SSG will also consider past performance of the service provider when awarding a new contract.”
“Our schools and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) provide different opportunities for students to build resilience. One approach is through participation in co-curricular and outdoor adventure education programmes held locally and overseas. Local outdoor adventure learning programmes, such as outdoor adventure learning camps for Primary and Secondary schools, have resumed. Schools and IHLs are gradually resuming overseas trips, taking into consideration prevailing travel advisories and guidelines. These overseas visits may include outdoor adventure, experiential learning and other exchanges.”
“Following the incident, the school counsellor, who is an employee of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), has been suspended from all duties, pending further investigation by the school personnel board. Parents and students have been given the assurance that the views expressed by the counsellor do not reflect that of the school. The school has also emphasised the importance of respect and care for everyone in the school community. The school has been watching out for students who may be affected by this incident. Teachers have been vigilant in monitoring their students' well-being, and students who have concerns or require support have been encouraged to approach the School Leaders or a trusted adult in school. The school is reviewing its processes to ensure alignment with MOE's curriculum and guidelines.”
“The Autonomous Universities (AUs) exercise due diligence in hiring and have in place processes to ensure the quality of hires. For instance, academic hires are subject to a rigorous appointment process with reviews at multiple levels, including verification of academic credentials. Such verification is done through referee letters, checks with appropriate third parties tapping on the AUs’ faculty networks as well as vetting agencies. AUs also conduct checks with journals and publishers to verify candidates’ publications. If relevant new information is subsequently surfaced, the AUs will conduct further checks and take appropriate action as necessary, including rescinding the job offer or terminating employment if the individual is already hired.”
“The NUS Infant and Child Language Centre is a laboratory set up in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to research into the early childhood learning of languages in Singapore. This laboratory is helmed by one faculty member and two full-time Research Assistants (RAs), and trains about three to four undergraduates in a year. Due to the focus of its research, the RAs and undergraduates working in the laboratory are typically locals. As part of their research work, the researchers are looking into ways to identify at-risk factors of language delays in Singaporean children learning Malay and Tamil. The researchers had previously collaborated with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to study how children acquire languages. The research team is open to working with community partners such as Yayasan Mendaki and SINDA, where opportune. There are other ongoing research projects in the Autonomous Universities in the area of early childhood language development, with an emphasis on Singapore's multicultural context. For instance, the National Institute of Education (NIE) in the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has research projects covering a range of areas, including the growth in bilingual and biliteracy proficiency of Singaporean children with Chinese, Malay and Tamil language backgrounds, as well as the reading habits and preferences of bilingual children in Singapore.”
“SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) was set up in 2016 as a Statutory Board under the Ministry of Education to coordinate and drive the implementation of the national SkillsFuture Movement. SkillsFuture subsidies to individuals and companies amount to about $700 million annually. Since its inception in 2016, SSG has encountered three unrelated cases of fraudulent claims. The total amount defrauded was about $42 million, including $40 million by a criminal syndicate in 2017.”
“Over the past two years, around 70 out of every 1,000 students in schools and Institutes of Higher Learning were estimated to have received counselling support for a wide range of issues each year, such as relationship challenges, anxiety and self-expectations, and family stressors. A smaller segment of these received support for mental health related issues. With increasing awareness and availability of support and resources, more students have sought help for mental health in the last two years.”
“The refreshed Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum has been progressively implemented in schools since 2021. By 2023, all levels from primary to pre-university will be conducting lessons from the refreshed curriculum. Mental health education is one of the key features of the CCE curriculum. Through these lessons, students are equipped with knowledge and skills to build their resilience, strengthen their mental well-being and resolve their challenges. For example, students learn to differentiate normal stress from distress and mental illness. They learn to break negative thinking patterns, overcome social emotional problems and seek help when they need to. Students are also taught to stand up against stigma around mental health issues. Students and teachers who have experienced the new CCE lessons found them engaging and the class discussions relevant and useful. With the establishment of peer support structures in all schools and stronger mental health literacy, students can better support their peers proactively. Teachers also appreciate the professional development and resources provided to support their delivery of mental health education.”
“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.”
“Under the current Primary 1 (P1) Registration Framework, parents can only register in one school per phase. The key rationale for this policy is to ensure that children registering in priority phases are not overly advantaged, so that more children are able to be enrolled in a primary school of their choice. For the last three P1 registration exercises, about 98% of registrants were able to obtain a place in a primary school of their choice, or a primary school within two kilometres of their residence.”
“TRANsition Support for InTegration (TRANSIT) helps Primary 1 students identified with social and behavioural needs to develop foundational self-management skills when they start school. TRANSIT is currently offered in 66 schools and will be in all schools by 2026. Every school is able to support up to 10 P1 students in TRANSIT. The average number of P1 students participating in TRANSIT per school is four in 2022. A team comprising key school personnel, form and subject teachers and Special Educational Needs Officers, previously known as Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural Support), undergoes training on TRANSIT processes to equip them with skills and knowledge to identify and support the students in TRANSIT. Each school has two to four teachers trained for TRANSIT. The teachers and SEN Officers work together to support students in small groups as well as in their form classes in their P1 year. They also work closely with parents to ensure that self-management skills learnt in school are practised at home.”
“The number of registered overseas electors will only be known when the applications to be an overseas elector have been processed after the application deadline, that is, by the second calendar day after the issue of the writ of election. At the last General Election in 2020 (GE2020), 6,570 Singaporeans living overseas registered to vote at the 10 overseas polling stations. Those living in countries without an overseas polling station are not likely to register to vote as an overseas elector. The breakdown of registered electors by overseas polling station for GE2020 is given in the table below.”
“Salaries of civil servants on the generic schemes were last adjusted in 2014. The last substantive change to the Management Executive Scheme (MXS), the largest generic scheme, was in 2015 when the MXS was extended to create a single career scheme for both degree and non-degree holders. However, salaries were not adjusted then.”
“The Secondary One posting process takes place after the release of PSLE results and is based on merit, choice order and citizenship of students. The vast majority of students are placed into a school of their choice, with more than 80% posted to a school within their top three choices, and more than 90% posted to a school in one of their six choices. If a student is not placed in a school among their six choices, the student will be posted to the school nearest to his or her residence that has vacancies in the course that he or she is eligible for.”
“MOE reviews its Sexuality Education curriculum regularly, guided by research, specialist expertise and stakeholder feedback. As matters relating to sexuality are sensitive and need careful handling, Sexuality Education teachers are specially nominated by their school leaders to be trained by MOE. Like all educators, Sexuality Education teachers have to exercise professionalism and not impose their personal views and beliefs on their students, or advance the interest of any advocacy, political or religious group in school. The MOE Sexuality Education is secular in nature, taught in the context of values that reflect Singapore’s mainstream society and focuses on equipping students with age-appropriate knowledge and skills. Students are taught to treat everyone with respect and empathy. Sexuality Education teachers also guide students to understand, evaluate and respect multiple perspectives, without discrimination or stigmatisation. Our schools are committed to provide a caring, respectful and enabling environment for all students through fostering empathy and building positive relationships.”
“To enable teachers to check in on their students, schools have dedicated time at the start of every term. Among our students, peer support structures have been implemented in all schools to enable them to look out for one another. Through these measures, we have observed more help-seeking by our students, whether for self and peers. The well-being of our teaching staff is also of paramount importance to MOE. We monitor the sentiments and morale of our teachers closely and will continue to strengthen the culture of care in our schools. Staff Well-Being Committees have been further resourced with additional funding and materials to enhance school-based staff well-being efforts. Most of our schools have at least one Wellness Ambassador, a peer whom a teacher can approach for support, other than their school leaders and reporting officers. Our teachers also have access to a suite of well-being resources and workshops. In addition to MOE’s in-house counselling services, teachers have free access to the 24/7 whole-of-Government Counselling Hotline. MOE regularly reviews and updates our security measures. Schools continue to practice emergency drills, such as fire and lockdown drills, at least twice a year with their students. Lockdown drills are aligned to the Run-Hide-Tell principles, in response to a security threat. MOE is committed to ensuring the well-being and safety of our students and teachers. We will continue to refine our efforts, in collaboration with relevant partners.”
“Over the past year, River Valley High School (RVHS) has become an even more closely-knit caring community, with strong support from its teacher and staff, Parent-Teacher Association and stakeholders. The school leaders and teachers actively engage students identified with learning and social-emotional needs while looking out for those who may need additional support. The school’s peer support structure has become stronger, with students looking out for their peers’ well-being and supporting them. The school also has more counsellors who conduct regular mental well-being talks for students. Students and staff have designed and transformed spaces in the campus, as well as school events and programmes, to create a warm and inviting environment. All these measures have had a positive impact on RVHS students and staff. Where applicable, MOE will share these good practices with other schools. Next, let me update Parliament on MOE’s efforts for mental health announced in my Ministerial Statement last year. Since July 2021, the Ministry has stepped up efforts to recruit more School Counsellors and identify suitable teachers for further training in counselling skills to serve as Teacher Counsellors who work alongside the School Counsellors. MOE has also strengthened teachers’ professional development in mental health literacy. Teachers are trained to recognise symptoms related to common mental health issues and are equipped with strategies to de-escalate students’ strong emotions and impulsive behaviour. Through Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lessons, teachers also facilitate classroom conversations on mental health which provide students with opportunities to voice their concerns.”
“MOE and the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) periodically review salaries of staff to ensure remuneration packages remain competitive. Adjustments are also made, where necessary, to keep pace with the market. MOE is, currently, working with PSD to review salaries of officers on MOE schemes, including Counsellors. Besides competitive remuneration, Counsellors are provided opportunities for professional development and growth, which are important for staff attraction and retention. MOE supports Counsellors in honing their counselling competencies through courses and regular clinical supervision and consultation sessions with their clinical supervisor.”
“Currently, all schools start no earlier than 7.30am. Around one out of seven Primary schools, around half of Secondary schools and most Junior Colleges start after 7.30am on at least three days per week. Schools consider various factors when deciding on their start time. These include student profiles, after-school and inter-school programmes, transport provisions and local transport situation. MOE, thus, gives schools the autonomy to start at either 7.30 am or later.”
“Superscale officers, generally, hold senior management positions and form around 2.5% of the Civil Service. Over the last five years, the annual remuneration of MX 9 officers ranged from about $200,000 to $260,000, depending on economic growth for the year and an officer's individual performance. Salaries comprise both fixed and variable components, of which the latter varies depending on economic conditions and individual performance. Together, the variable components constituted around 20% to 35% of the total annual remuneration at the MX 9 level in the last five years.”
“We will continue with efforts to organise and train our service workforce and leverage technology towards improving and integrating physical, digital and call centre services around our citizens to serve them better.”
“The Public Service has had to adopt new ways of working over the last two years due to COVID-19. In line with the national posture to prevent the spread of the virus and keep employees and the citizens they serve safe, Public Service agencies had implemented arrangements, such as work-from-home and split teams. To ensure that services were not disrupted even as they had to reduce physical interactions with citizens, agencies had to switch quickly towards hybrid ways of delivering services, leveraging more on call centres and digital service delivery. Throughout the pandemic, the Public Service continues to monitor service levels and conduct citizen satisfaction surveys at both the agency and whole-of-Public-Service levels. In 2020, slight dips were observed in service levels for call centre services while satisfaction for digital services were maintained. Overall citizen satisfaction for service delivery showed a drop, although the satisfaction level showed signs of recovery towards the end of 2020 and into 2021. These results are not surprising, given the surge in calls when physical services had to be reduced within short notice and the heightened anxieties from citizens during the pandemic. Furthermore, the Public Service workforce was stretched thin as officers also had to be diverted to staff up new COVID-19-related operations urgently. Moving forward, the Public Service will continue to uphold high standards of service delivery. Hybrid workplaces and service delivery are expected to be a feature in the new normal, post COVID-19. The past two years’ experience has provided us some useful learning.”
“As recently stated in my Parliamentary response on 4 July 2022, the Public Service supports the tripartite efforts by MOM, NTUC and Singapore National Employers Federation to boost the adoption of flexible work arrangements (FWAs). We assess that up to half of the jobs in the Public Service can be suitable for telecommuting. For officers whose work allows for telecommuting, officers can do so for an average of two out of five days per work week. Other than telecommuting, Public Service agencies can exercise flexibility and discuss other forms of FWAs, such as staggered hours and part-time work, with officers who need it to support them in balancing work and personal circumstances. To ensure that the Public Service continues to deliver high standards, effectiveness and productivity in this new work environment, PSD has issued guidelines to reinforce the expectations on work standards and to promote good supervisory practices, such as outcome-based performance management. As an agile organisation, we will continue to review and improve the way we work as our operating landscape changes.”
“Moving ahead, the AUs will consider how their career tracks and organisation incentives can better attract industry expertise, encourage collaboration across faculties and with industry, and increase the faculties' contributions to lifelong learning. Taken together, the IAAP’s suggestions and views will inform how our Universities can position themselves for the future. MOE will study the ideas and work with our institutions to implement the recommendations.”
“MOE convened the 12th International Academic Advisory Panel (IAAP) last month, which affirmed key directions for the University sector, including approaches towards developing agile and resilient graduates and the role of our Institutes of Higher Learning in supporting continuing education and training. First, our University curricular must continue to strike a good balance between equipping students with depth of understanding of a core field, while providing them with exposure to a range of fields beyond their core discipline of study. Our Autonomous Universities (AUs) have been introducing multidisciplinary approaches within the curriculum and will also continue to prepare their students through experiential learning. Second, the IAAP endorsed the AUs’ ongoing efforts to support lifelong learning by making learning more accessible, such as through more flexible pathways, work-learn modality, stackable modules and blended learning. Our future efforts will explore new models of partnership, both across institutions and with industry, to enable better demand aggregation for skills. For example, intermediaries could work with SMEs to aggregate skills demands. MOE will study these ideas and see how to implement them progressively. Third, we discussed the need for University teams to develop and draw on the strengths of a broad diversity of talent, including academic as well as industry, technological and administrative expertise, to better meet the evolving needs of learners. Our AUs must continue providing industry exposure opportunities for faculty and leverage appointments of adjunct or associate faculty with industry expertise.”
“MOE has partnered DBS to set up e-payment infrastructure in all schools by 2025. This will provide the option of cashless transactions in our school canteens and bookshops. Those who prefer cashless payments can use their School Smart Card and EZ-Link cards or sign up for the POSB Smart Buddy Programme, which is optional. Those who prefer cash payments can continue to do so, as we will keep this option available. MOE conducted a study with pilot Primary schools in 2018 on the POSB Smart Buddy Programme. The majority of schools provided positive feedback on how students have responded to using cashless payments. They found that students demonstrated the "ability to track spending" and that they had "learned to save". This indicates that students can develop good financial habits, whether using cash or cashless payment. Whether payment is done by physical cash or digital money, it is important that young children learn about the value of money, spending wisely and managing their money prudently. Allowing our students an option of cashless payment in schools where it can be done in more controlled settings, would not only help to develop good financial habits but also better prepare them for a world where contactless transactions are becoming more prevalent. MOE will continue to monitor how students respond to cashless payment in schools and provide them with the necessary guidance to develop good financial literacy.”
“At Primary 4, schools report subject performance as Achievement Bands 1 to 4, with Band 4 corresponding to below 50 marks. Over the past five years, on average, Among Primary 4 students who scored Band 4 in only one subject, 4.5% live in public rental flats. Among Primary 4 students who scored Band 4 in two or more subjects, 12.6% live in public rental flats. Among Primary 4 students who scored better than Band 4 in all four subjects, 0.8% live in public rental flats. Where appropriate, schools support students through subject-specific remediation. Students can also take subjects at Foundation level at Primary 5 and 6 so that they can focus on building strong fundamentals for secondary school.”
“MOE offers part-time work options to teachers in all schools to help them manage their work and personal commitments. Teachers can discuss with their school and agree on a part-time work arrangement which meets both the school’s and officer’s needs. On average, about 3.6% of our teachers in schools were on a part-time work arrangement between 2017 and 2021. School Leaders also have the autonomy to implement other types of flexible work arrangements where operationally feasible. These include allowing teachers to report or leave at staggered hours if they have no lessons or duties at the start or end of the school day; or to work from home on a day where they have no in-person classes or other duties requiring their presence in school. Schools can determine how to implement such arrangements based on their specific needs, and do not need to keep MOE HQ informed. MOE is committed to supporting our teachers’ well-being while fulfilling our responsibility to students, including through flexible work arrangements.”
“These preventive education resources were co-created with youths including students from St Joseph’s Institution, Nanyang Polytechnic and Yale-NUS College to leverage their insights on what may interest younger Singaporeans as well as promote greater ownership amongst our youths. CPIB will continue to work with schools and the community, including the media, to enhance the relevance and reach of its corruption prevention work to ensure that corruption in Singapore is kept at bay. Finally, Members would be aware that CPIB is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. This is a significant milestone. May I ask Members to join me in acknowledging the good work and devotion to duty of CPIB officers, both past and present, in keeping Singapore clean and corruption-free. Thank you.”
“Incorruptibility is an integral part of Singapore’s DNA. This national value was ingrained in our society by our founding fathers. Our system of clean governance, and the way we conduct our business honestly and with integrity are well-regarded internationally. We have been ranked in the top ten least corrupt countries since 1995 by Transparency International, and is the only Asian country that has achieved this accolade. While the corruption situation in Singapore is firmly under control, we should never take this for granted. CPIB will continue to invest in capabilities to keep corruption at bay. We are also mindful that fighting corruption is not solely the responsibility of CPIB. CPIB needs the support of the community to combat corruption with zeal and tenacity, and without fear or favour. To this end, CPIB has taken the fight upstream through targeted corruption prevention and education efforts with the community. CPIB’s work in preventive education covers a full spectrum, from those meant for the general public, to those aimed at private sector companies and employees, as well as public officers and students. There are specific corruption prevention initiatives targeted at younger Singaporeans from different age groups. These included picture books and animated video series designed for pre-schoolers to emphasise important values like honesty and integrity, an Anti-Corruption Badge Programme for Uniformed Groups such as the National Police Cadet Corps, an Anti-Corruption Web Game and e-Book for teenagers to learn about the serious consequences of corruption.”
“The provision of subsidised university places and pathways for skills upgrading are key policies which the Ministry of Education reviews regularly. As mentioned at the Committee of Supply in March, we are reviewing the lifetime cohort participation rate in university education to give working adults more opportunities in subsidised degree programmes. We are also studying ways to enhance structural support for Singaporeans in their 40s and 50s who may need significant reskilling to provide a second wind in their careers. Our approach involves working with economic agencies to study the quantity and mix of the increase in university places, as this depends on the economy’s medium-term demand for manpower, and where the growth areas are. We do not plan to convene a select committee, but are engaging relevant stakeholders, and members of the public who wish to share their views may also write to MOE.”
“We will also equip school administrative staff with the necessary skills and support them centrally from HQ where possible.”
“All schools have a School Administration Team that performs administrative and operational functions. Schools are also given additional posts and funding which they can use flexibly to meet their needs by hiring more staff, including on an adjunct and casual basis, to help with administrative duties. However, there are natural limits to expanding schools’ administrative workforce, given national manpower constraints. MOE has increased our support for schools in recent years in a number of ways to better manage the administrative workload. First, we have reduced administrative work by strengthening centralised services provided by HQ to schools where possible, such as providing one-stop support for more complex procurement and finance issues. Second, we have provided better support for our teachers in some of the administrative duties that they have to perform such as taking attendance or organising learning journeys and overseeing outdoor adventure camps. For example, teachers can use Parents’ Gateway, an IT system, to collect consent forms and disseminate information to parents. MOE also provides funding for schools to engage vendors to help with event planning and conducting after-school enrichment activities and camps, though teachers will still need to exercise oversight and provide the duty of care for their students. While these activities extend beyond classroom teaching, these are an important part of a teacher’s responsibility and should not be totally outsourced, as they contribute to the holistic development of our students. We will continue efforts to keep administrative workload manageable for our teachers, including through the use of technology and streamlining of processes.”