SINGAPORE TEACHERS' UNION
TEACHERS' CENTRE
162 TAGORE AVENUE
SINGAPORE 787752
SPECIAL NEWSLETTER
To: All STU Members through the STU Representatives/ Delegates
Subject: Extension of Curriculum Time and Working Hours in Single Session Secondary Schools
Dear Colleagues
In response to the feedback we have received from members about the above subject, the STU has written to the Ministry of Education to express our views on the matter.
For the information of all our members, we quote below the relevant extracts of our letter to MOE:
"With the establishment of Single Session Secondary Schools, we notice that a number of these schools have been extending the Curriculum Time and the Official Working Hours of Teachers. When this is done excessively, it is not only an educationally unsound practice, but it also becomes, physically unbearable for both pupils and teachers.
These practices of extending Curriculum Time and the Working Hours of teachers have emerged subtlely but surely over the last few years. In the race to tie better than the next school, more and more work has been piled on
the plate of the teachers. At the same time, our "Data Driven" Education System has demanded that our teachers provide detailed data of every pupil, and this too requires lime. Feedback from our members is that the proposal to reduce Curriculum Content is not a reality in our schools, because the drive to compete and excel forces the schools to require the pupils to have more practice, and do more work. This results is more work for teachers.
The STU is not against teachers having to do more. But we are of the view that productivity and producing good results is not a question of quantity but of quality. It is not a matter of working long hours doing unproductive things but of working smart and achieving the desired outcomes. If teachers are well motivated by enlightened school leaders, we are confident that they will always go the extra mile and do what is necessary to help their pupils to achieve good results. But if they perceive that things are done just to keep up with the Jones, as the saying goes, or to keep up in the numbers game, as some of them put it, then they feel that it is a waste of precious time and energy.
We have been monitoring the situation in Single Session Secondary Schools for
some time. We feel that it is now necessary for us, in the interests of education and of our teachers, to sound a word of caution about this
unhealthy trend of extending Curriculum time and the Working Hours of teachers.
Schools usually begin at about 7.30 am and this means that the majority of our pupils and teachers have to leave their homes as early as 6.30 am in the morning.
We know of at least one school that starts each day with Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading (USSR) at 7.30 am but calls this time "Zero Period" and does not allow the teachers to record it as part of their daily Working Hours. The "Official" School Time Table begins only at 8.05 am and goes on until 3.15 pm, with a half an hour break between 1.45 pm to 2.15 pm. On at least two days of the week the teachers have their ECA for one and a half hours until 5.00 pm; and oftentimes there are Departmental and other Meetings called from 3.15 pm until 5.00 pm. So, the teachers are, effectively, in school for nine and a half hours a day, not taking into account the time they need to mark their books and prepare their lessons. And the pupils too, have a very long day that does not take into account the problems of fatigue and the need for proper rest and nourishment that teenage boys and girls require.
Many other secondary schools also have the Official School Time Tables extended up to 1.30pm or 1.45 pm. -with their ECA and Remedial Classes starting at 2.15 pm and going on up to 3.15 or 3.30 pm. For the teachers, the Working Day is far from over. They still have meetings to attend, books to mark and lessons to prepare before their day is done.
For the HOD, the situation can sometimes be even worse, because it is becoming the fashion to have School Management Committee (SMC) Meetings from 3.30 pm, up to 6.00 or 7.00 pm, on a weekly basis. We cannot distinguish whether this is a sign of inefficiency or a question of having no time to conduct such meetings during normal working hours.
We have also received feedback from our members that, as their Working Hours
have been extended, they are unable to avail themselves of the Training opportunities provided by the MOE and the NIE. So, in order to "help" the teachers to complete their Training Roadmaps, the schools very frequently
organise school-based Workshops and Training Courses from 10.00 am to 4.30 or 5.00 pm on Saturdays, after the regular ECA or Remedial Classes which normally run from 8.00 am to 10.00 am. So our teachers have to work a full day on Saturday, and carry on working on Saturday afternoons, after 1.00 pm when all other workers have gone home, for the weekend.
Some of the reasons that our teachers have been given to justify the extension of school hours until after 3.15 pm daily are to prevent the pupils from loitering in the shopping centres and game saloons, to help pupils have more practice to improve their grades and to optimise the use of school facilities. Two common reason's given for having Workshops on Saturday afternoons are that the Trainers cannot make themselves available at any other time, and, unashamedly, that the teachers are not free to attend Courses and workshops on weekdays.
No regard is given to the fact that the teachers themselves are parents with their own family responsibilities and duties. No concern is shown for the inconvenience caused to the teachers who cannot fulfill their own family obligations to their spouse and children, who are free on Saturday afternoons.
It must be recognised that our teachers are under very heavy work pressure and are being over-worked.
Please circulate this Newsletter to all our members to keep them informed.
Thank you.
YING CHEOK PING
GENERAL SECRETARY
SINGAPORE TEACHERS UNION
11th February 2000
