Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang, Nee Soon GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education in each year for the past five years, what is the median and average ratio of student welfare officers to students in (i) primary schools and (ii) secondary schools respectively.
Response
1. Student welfare officers (SWOs) only support students who are absent from school for prolonged periods of time, those with brushes with the law and under probation, or under child protection. The needs of the schools vary, and it is not meaningful to look at averages across schools.
2. Taking a needs-based approach, primary and secondary schools with a higher number of such students are resourced with one or two SWOs each. There are 102 school-based SWOs currently.
3. Schools without a school-based SWO have a team of staff comprising teachers and school counsellors to support students who are at risk of not completing school. MOE also deploys roving SWOs to support these schools. Currently, there are 21 roving SWOs.
4. MOE will continue to periodically review the number of SWOs needed to support our students and work with other partner agencies to help uplift these students.