Reduce teachers' workload

Reduce teachers' workload

REDUCE the workload of teachers by cutting down on the administrative chores they have to shoulder.

This call came from Mr Christopher de Souza, MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in Parliament on Monday, during the debate on the Education Ministry's budget.

'We require a lot of our teachers,' he said.

Making a case for teachers' workload to be reduced, he said: 'The teachers in my age group often tell me about their daily toil - wake up early for school, teach, prepare lessons in between classes, coach/supervise a CCA after school, return home in the evening, cat nap for an hour, wake up and finish the marking till midnight.

'Wake up at 6am to start school again the next day. Some teachers are required by parents to 'parent' their child - many teachers have told me how parents call their mobile phones to ask where their child is.

'In view of these expectations on our teachers, I feel we can do more to decrease the administrative workload of teachers.'

He also asked MOE to give assurance that the move to single session schools by 2016 would not mean teachers having to take on an after-school-day-care-service.

Teachers need time to prepare lessons, mark and discern ways to improve students, and this is best done after a single session school day, he added.

On the ministry's recruitment drive to fill 7,500 posts, Mr de Souza said it should make efforts to hire those who really have a passion to impart knowledge to students and nurture young minds.

'Teaching is a vocation, not just a career, and teachers must continue to be those extra special people that we can entrust our children's education to,' he said. 'Would the MOE give its assurance that the teachers it aims to recruit are men and women who have a true desire to nurture and develop young minds?

Another MP, Mr Michael Palmer (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC), commenting on the MOE's move to recruit graduate teachers by 2015, said many parents had told him that the emphasis ought not to be on university degree.

'They were of the view that it was more important for a teacher to have the aptitude and passion for teaching, rather than just the paper qualifications,' he said.

'They said that they would prefer a diploma holder teaching their child if he or she had the right attitude, passion for teaching and compassion for their child.'

He asked what are the safeguard against graduates who are joining the teaching profession as a last resort because their options are limited and not because they really want to become teachers.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_336512.html