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SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Education (MOE) will increase the career guidance available to students to help them better manage the rapidly changing educational and employment landscape.
This comes amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has generated greater uncertainty in terms of career prospects and job opportunities, especially for recent graduates.
Each of the high schools will have an educational and career guidance counselor, while every other high school will have one. This is an increase from a ratio of one counselor to four schools currently, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said on Thursday (September 3).
He was speaking in a video aimed at educators in commemoration of Teacher’s Day, which falls on Friday (September 4), to thank them for the exceptional work in an extraordinary year.
The number of student welfare officers in schools will also double to better support vulnerable students.
These officers support teachers and work closely with other school staff members and community partners to strengthen the safety net and address barriers to school attendance and learning for these at-risk students.
The increase in counselors and wellness officers will be implemented in phases, beginning in January of next year (2021).
Staff in both roles come under the umbrella of Allied Educators.
To give different groups of allied educators more opportunities for progression, the Ministry of Education said it will also increase the number of middle and higher level positions. This is also to nurture multi-domain expertise and strengthen professional leadership.
Separately, over the next several years, there will also be “a significant number” of teacher teachers who will be assigned to schools, the ministry announced.
Teacher teachers dedicate their time to policy and coordination work at the national level and are currently based primarily at the Ministry of Education headquarters, although they also dedicate time to school ties to ensure they keep up with classroom practices and other developments on the ground. They “foster a teacher-led culture of professional excellence in our teaching fraternity,” the MOE said.
Mr. Wong added, “(Master’s degree teachers) play a critical role in sharing effective teaching practices in the classroom, prototyping new teaching methodologies, and supporting policy and program work related to the teaching and learning nationwide. “
He pointed out that Covid-19 has shown the importance of being able to adapt and innovate pedagogical practices.
“Over the next few years, we will increase the number of teachers with master’s degrees, with the aim of sending more than a hundred of them to schools to teach on a sustained basis,” said Mr. Wong.
They will spend most of their time teaching in classrooms, co-planning and co-teaching lessons with other teachers, and leading professional development committees within the school and also at the cluster and zone levels.
Mr. Wong said that the initiative to have master’s degree teachers in the school is “a significant move, indicating our commitment to strengthening the teaching trajectory and our continued investments to create a quality teaching workforce as the backbone of our system. educational”.
Some of these teachers will be released starting in January of next year and the numbers will increase over time.
Mr. Wong also pointed out that with the implementation of blended learning, a combination of classroom and digital learning, and the National Digital Literacy Program, the information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities of schools will need to be strengthened. .
Such capabilities will be recognized as a core part of the schools’ administrative team, and the Ministry of Education will enhance professional development opportunities for ICT administration staff, with opportunities for some to contribute at the group level, Wong said.
The ministry will also increase the ratio of ICT partners per school and provide a team to support the roll-out of personal learning devices for students, starting for high school students next year.
Mr. Wong said, “Our schools today are multifaceted communities because that is what it takes to nurture our students holistically.
“You need people with different abilities (teachers, allied educators, education and career counselors) who work together toward a common goal.”
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