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SINGAPORE \u2013 The number of allied educators who counsel and work\u00a0with students with special educational needs has doubled from around 800 to 1,600 across all schools in the last decade.<\/p>\n
Today, each school has an average of 85 teachers, and the number of administrative staff has increased from six to around nine.<\/p>\n
Minister for Education Desmond Lee revealed these numbers in Parliament on Nov 4, in response to questions from 13 MPs about teacher well-being and workload, a topic that has been in the spotlight since a recent survey found that teachers here work an average of 47.3 hours a week, up from 46 hours a week in 2018.<\/p>\n
According to the global Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis), released on Oct 7, <\/p>\n Singapore teachers are the third hardest-working<\/p>\n <\/a> in the world, up from seventh in the 2018 survey.<\/p>\n The survey also showed that 40 per cent of teachers under the age of 30 said they intended to leave the profession within the next five years \u2013 a 9 percentage point drop from\u00a02018 but still double the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 20 per cent.<\/p>\n Mr Lee said the ministry recognises that the job of a teacher has become more complex over the years, and has adopted a range of measures to manage teachers\u2019 workloads and support their well-being, which is reviewed regularly.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that when new policies and initiatives are introduced, or when policy changes are made, teachers\u2019 workloads temporarily increase. <\/p>\n To this end, he said: \u201cGood change management is key.\u201d <\/p>\n Schools have been given greater flexibility to pace the implementation of new system-wide initiatives, Mr Lee added, including deferring them if necessary to manage workload. Examples include major changes such as <\/p>\n Full Subject-Based Banding<\/p>\n <\/a> and the EdTech Masterplan\u00a02030.<\/p>\n The Education Minister listed several initiatives that have been put in place recently to address the increasingly complex nature of teachers\u2019 workloads. <\/p>\n These include a common set of guidelines given to school leaders to guide workload allocation; artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the Singapore Student Learning Space to help teachers work more efficiently; as well as digital platforms like Parents Gateway to reduce time spent on administrative tasks like collecting consent forms.<\/p>\n Teachers also have protected vacation time of about six to seven weeks to rest and recharge. And guidelines on parent-staff communication have been updated to minimise the blurring of lines between work and personal time. <\/p>\n Flexible work arrangements also cater to teachers\u2019 individual needs, for instance, allowing them to leave earlier before the end of the school day if they have no lessons or duties, or to work from home on days when they have no classes.<\/p>\n