Mr Mike Thiruman, President, Singapore Teachers’ Union,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.                  I am happy to join all of you this morning at this “Teachers’ Work-Life Harmony” Symposium organised by the Singapore Teachers’ Union.

Importance Of Work-Life Harmony

2.                  This symposium is timely in view of the increasing importance of work-life harmony.  I am particularly pleased to note that today’s symposium is a result of collaboration among key stakeholders and it is organised in partnership with the Tripartite Committee on Work-Life Strategy, chaired by Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Manpower), Mr Hawazi Daipi.

3.                  Globalisation and advances in technology have brought the world closer and hastened the pace of our lives.  New gadgets like the Blackberry have allowed people to work on the move and stay connected 24/7 even when they are not physically in the office.  All this means that many of us hardly stop working. 

4.                  A teacher’s work is no less demanding.  During term time, they are fully occupied and during the school holidays, they provide additional coaching to students, oversee CCAs, undertake professional development and participate in school planning.  At the same time, teachers also face similar demands from their families and friends, just like all of us.

5.                  Our greatest challenge lies in helping teachers maintain a healthy balance between family and working life.  Let me stress that work-life harmony is not simply about “less work, more life”.  It is about creating greater flexibility for teachers to meet their family and personal needs, so that they can give their best at work.

MOE’s Commitment to Promoting Work-Life Harmony

6.                  We believe that the teacher’s sense of well-being will directly impact his or her sense of belonging and contribution to the organisation.  Furthermore, based on data collected from various surveys of teachers and our schools, we have found that students’ learning experiences tended to be more positive when teachers were more satisfied with their jobs.

7.                  This means that teachers who are able to manage the demands in their working and family life will be more effective in school, and will be able to bring out the best in their pupils.  This creates a win-win situation for MOE, our teachers and our students. 

8.                  We help teachers achieve better work-life harmony by giving the school more resources.  First, we are recruiting and deploying an additional 3,000 teachers into schools by 2010.  We have recruited more than 2,500 teachers in the last two cycles.  On average, each school has been given an additional 5 teachers.  These additional teachers have provided schools with greater flexibility in terms of staff deployment.

9.                  Second, MOE has progressively provided schools with more financial resources, so that they can purchase manpower or services to take over certain administrative duties previously done by teachers.  We have increased the manpower grant for schools by between 30% to 80% in 2005. This year, the grant quantum was further stepped up by another 50% for the primary level.  Schools can use the Manpower Grant to engage clerical support or external manpower providers to organise and manage school events and CCAs.  This has helped to ease the workload of teachers.

10.             Third, we have deployed additional staff like the Co-Curricular Programme Executives (CCPEs), the Full-Time School Counsellors (FTSCs) and Special Needs Officers (SNOs) to further offload teachers so that they can concentrate more on their core duties.   

11.             Four, schools can leverage on the Adjunct Teaching (AJT) scheme, introduced in 2004, to appoint former trained teachers for a defined period of time.  The adjunct teachers can support schools when teachers pursue professional development opportunities or go on the Part-Time Teaching Scheme.  I am pleased to note that schools are making good use of the scheme, with each school engaging about 4-5 AJTs last year.  I would encourage schools to make full use of this scheme.

12.             Five, to help our teachers better manage their work responsibilities alongside their family and personal life, we have enhanced the Part-Time Teaching Scheme for our serving teachers, as part of the GROW package announced last year.  The revised scheme allows married male and female officers with children below the age of 12 to take up part time teaching, compared to only female officers previously.

Coordination of Staff Well-being Matters at HQ Level

13.             The PS21 Staff Well-being Functional Committee (SWBFC) chaired by DGE oversees the well-being of our employees.   The committee is supported by other sub-committees such as the MOE Sports & Recreation Club (MESRC), MOE Work Place Health Promotion Committee and the MOE Community Involvement Programme (MCIP).

14.       To give specific focus on staff well-being, a dedicated Staff Well-being unit will be created in MOE under the Training and Development Division.  The unit will promote, coordinate, plan and develop staff well-being initiatives and programmes for all MOE staff.  This unit will also collect feedback and review its programmes and services to effectively improve and enhance staff well-being and work-life harmony.

Encouraging Schools to Share Best Practices

15.       In addition to what MOE can do at the systems level, schools can do much to adopt best practices in ensuring the well-being of their staff individually and the school community as a whole.  Our schools have done well despite the relatively short time since the introduction of the work-life harmony initiative.  For example, CHIJ (Bukit Timah) has won the Family Friendly Firm Award while South View Primary School, Canberra Secondary School and Bukit Merah Secondary School have won the Singapore Family Friendly Employer Award[1]. 

16.       Bukit Merah Secondary School is here today to share their practices that promote work-life harmony.  Officers with young children are given the flexibility to start the work day later to enable them to balance between childcare commitments and school work.  The school also ensures that part of the school holidays are ‘protected’ for the teachers to go on leave or vacation.   Rulang Primary School uses a survey to determine staff interest and preferences for the teaching level, CCA and other duties as part of their staff resource planning process. 

17.       Over at St Hilda’s Primary School, staff retreats are literally a family affair. Staff will bring their family members to the retreats for bonding and recreational activities. St Hilda’s Primary also takes into consideration officer’s family needs when assigning officers for the morning or afternoon sessions.  Anderson Junior College, on the other hand, has a structured mentoring programme where experienced teachers provide support to beginning teachers.  This helps them to settle in and adjust to a new job while seeing to other personal and family commitments. 

18.       I hope that the experiences of these four schools will inspire each of you to think about what you can do in your schools to achieve better work-life harmony.

Conclusion

19.       This symposium is an excellent opportunity for school leaders like yourselves to share and learn from one another.  So I would urge all of you to embrace the work-life friendly philosophy in the management of your schools.

20.      Let me conclude by saying that work-life harmony is critical to the building of a quality teaching service.  It is not a question of “Can I afford to have work-life harmony?” but “Can I afford not to?”.  On this note, I wish you a fruitful discussion.