SINGAPORE NEWS

Education Officers to get pay rise of between 5% and 8%

SINGAPORE: The Education Ministry will raise the salaries of its teachers by between 5% and 8%. This works out to 0.8 to 1.35 months of their salary and will not take into account any increases due to promotion. Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the pay rise is in line with the Civil Service salary review. He reiterated that it is a challenge to bring into the teaching profession those with talent and passion.

Mr Tharman was speaking at a Senior Education Officer promotion ceremony on Tuesday. The minister also gave an update on the various schemes for the teaching service. One of them is the Professional Development Leave, which has been enhanced to allow teachers with at least 12 years of service to take full pay leave for up to 10 weeks to engage in professional development activities. Mr Tharman said about 3,330 of the more than 8,000 teachers eligible for the scheme, are keen on it. As for the part-time teaching scheme, he noted that there are now 200 teachers, a 63% increase.

"The GROW Package introduced last September represents the Ministry's commitment to ensure that teaching remains an attractive and satisfying career for our officers," said Mr Tharman. "Adding the GROW Package measures to the recently announced performance-related payment from the Civil Service salary review, our Education Officers will receive a pay increase of between 5% and 8% in total (or 0.8 to 1.35 months of salary), without taking into account the increases due to promotion," he added. GROW stands for Growth of Education Officers through better Recognition, Opportunities and seeing to their Well-being. "We are able to keep the salaries of our Education Officers in line with the market because we have pro-actively reviewed our remuneration package and stayed one step ahead. And we will continue to do so," said Mr Tharman. - CNA/ir

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