Sending Teachers for Stints at Overseas Schools or for Industry Attachment

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Darryl David, Ang Mo Kio GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) whether there are any dedicated programmes for sending teachers for teaching stints in overseas schools or institutions; (b) if so, where will the teachers typically be sent to; (c) how long is the average length of each teaching stint; and (d) how many teachers in terms of absolute number and percentage have undergone such overseas teaching stints.

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Darryl David, Ang Mo Kio GRC

To ask the Minister for Education (a) how many teachers have had professional corporate working experience outside of the teaching profession; (b) what is the average number of years of professional corporate experience that these teachers have; (c) whether the Ministry has any dedicated programmes to send teachers who have not worked outside of the teaching profession for professional corporate industry attachments; and (d) if so, how many teachers in terms of absolute numbers and percentage have undergone such industry attachment programmes.

Response

1. MOE provides a wide range of professional development opportunities for teachers to expose them to external work experiences.

2. Under the Teacher Work Attachment-Plus (TWA+) programme, teachers can be attached to people, public and private sector organisations for 2 to 4 weeks. Since 2022, about 550 teachers have benefited from such attachments. In addition, MOE organises learning journeys to external organisations and themed dialogues with industry experts. Close to 6,000 teachers have participated in these sessions. Beyond TWA+, a good number of teachers have also gone on longer work attachments of 2 to 3 years through secondments to other public sector organisations.

3. MOE welcomes those in other industries to join the teaching profession. Around 1 in 10 of our teachers have at least 5 years of prior work experience. They bring diverse industry experiences that they can share with fellow educators and students.

4. MOE seconds a small number of teachers to the Singapore International School in Hong Kong for periods of 3 to 5 years. We also facilitate one-month teaching attachments to International Schools in Singapore for around 2 to 3 teachers per year.