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37,000 teachers, allied educators to get 5-10% pay increase from Oct 1: MOE

SINGAPORE — From Oct 1, more than 37,000 teachers and other educators will get a 5 to 10 per cent increase in their monthly pay, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Tuesday (Aug 16).

37,000 teachers, allied educators to get 5-10% pay increase from Oct 1: MOE
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SINGAPORE — From Oct 1, more than 37,000 teachers and other educators will get a 5 to 10 per cent increase in their monthly pay, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Tuesday (Aug 16).

The move is meant to ensure that their overall salary packages remain competitive, so that the ministry can "continue to attract and retain good educators", it said in a statement.

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

The term education officer is a catch-all term covering teachers of various levels of seniority while allied educators include roles such as assisting children with special needs and counsellors.

Salaries for education officers and allied educators were last reviewed in 2015, whereas the scheme for MOE Kindergarten educators was introduced in 2019.

NEW SALARY GRADE

Besides salary hikes, the ministry also announced that a new general education officer 5A substantive grade will be created, which will come with a higher salary ceiling.

At present, only educators holding key personnel appointments, such as Subject Head or Senior Teacher appointments, can be promoted to the senior education officer grade, which ranks above the general education officer grade.

The introduction of the new 5A grade is a way to recognise the valuable contributions of good-performing teachers who do not hold a key personnel position, said MOE.

The change will apply from next year.

RETENTION PLAN

Starting from 2023, MOE will also enhance the Connect Plan, a 30-year retention plan for education officers where a flat rate quantum ranging from S$3,200 to S$8,320 is set aside for officers each year depending on their length of service.

Payouts comprising a proportion of the money accumulated are given every three to five years of an officer’s career.

Overall, the Connect Plan will be enhanced by about 20 per cent, MOE said, adding that the annual deposit quantum and payout ratio will be raised to better support officers in the earlier years of their career.

“Teachers are the core of our education system. Beyond these enhancements... MOE will continue to provide opportunities for our educators to learn and develop throughout the course of their career."

“This includes providing in-service courses to help teachers deepen their content mastery and pedagogy, as well as exposing teachers to diverse experiences outside the classroom through external work attachments,” said the ministry.

In a joint press statement later on Tuesday, the four public sector teachers' unions welcomed the increase.

"The four unions appreciate this boost especially for teachers who have faced a lot of stresses and challenges during the onset of the pandemic when their workload increased tremendously.

"The unions feel that this is timely as it shows our teachers that they are valued and rewarded for their hard work," said the Singapore Teachers' Union, the Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Union, the Singapore Malay Teachers’ Union and the Singapore Tamil Teachers’ Union.

The unions added that they were pleased MOE had acted on feedback from them over the creation of the new grade for senior classroom teachers.

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