Preschool educators' salaries under review to make them more competitive; changes from 2023: MSF

SINGAPORE — An ongoing salary review for early education educators is expected to wrap up in the fourth quarter of this year, with changes implemented next year onwards.

Speaking in response to a parliamentary question on Tuesday (Sept 13) on the duration of the review and its scope, Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development, said that the review aims to strike a balance between paying educators for their contributions and skills and being competitive enough to attract and retain talent in the sector.

In August, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced a 5 to 10 per cent increase in salary for 37,000 teachers and other educators.

The increment will be given to around 35,000 education officers, 1,600 allied educators and 800 MOE Kindergarten educators.

Following that announcement, private preschool operators told TODAY that they were either raising or reviewing their teachers’ salaries.

Mr Masagos added on Tuesday that the Early Childhood Development Agency is working with preschools to ensure the educators’ physical and mental well-being are looked after.

Mr Leong Mun Wai, Non-Constituency Member of the Parliament from the Progress Singapore Party, stood up to ask how the current salaries of early childhood educators compare to those of other teachers.

Mr Masagos said that he did not have the numbers on hand and welcomed MPs to file a parliamentary question on it.

“But certainly, there is a relativity between all jobs and all job families that we want to maintain, not just (among) educators, but across many other job families, so that there is a balance between what we pay for their skills and contribution and (the pay being) competitive enough” so that they stay in the industry, he added.

“Whether it is a good thing to compare between preschool and school teachers is a question that our professionals help us to answer.”