Preschool Teachers in Singapore
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Hi grandmaster, you sound like a child care operator. but it doenst matter in my message. what you brought up is very true and even applies till now.
the govt should have slightly have a better hand in child care matters such as labour related matters.
imagine if our primary and sec schools arent controlled strictly by MOE where the teachers can resign as the like and join back as they like and transfers school as they wish. the childrens education would be a disaster. parents will complain due to poor management/poor attititude of teachers and childrens education will be affected due to the lack of commitment and seriousness of the teacher. due to the strictness of the ministry, in the teachers dreams that they can resign as they wish and rejoin multiple times.
its true that most child cares are privately owned. BUT in the education industry, we cant have fly by night teachers. and this happens in govt related preschools as well as private schools. they should have more stringent solutions for this problem. we aren dealing with EDUCATION thats why i stress the importance of the govt having to assist in the preschool sector.
most childcares arent very expensive international schools where the charge at least 2 to 3k per month and therefore can afford to pay the teachers well.
now rental is so high, and teachers demand more pay. if the govt doesnt discourage private preschools from setting up, there should be a assistance is key areas such as labour matters.
we are not a desk job where turn over rate may be high and nobody gives a heck. centres are dealing with parents who feel the need to have good relations with teachers. but do teachers nowadays care? i would salute that rare gem. a passionate teacher is so rare.
wait till english educated and ech qualified teachers from our neighbouring countries get approved to work in singapore. then our local teachers will be scared the shit out of their job security.
work 44 hours a week also got problem, work on saturday twice a month also got problem. even before starting work, alrdy bring up this childish matters. the negative work attitude shows. that kind of worker cannot last in any job. -
i hope there will be a very very great influx of filipino teachers. i know of some and i cant tell that they were filipino when they spoke until i asked for the name. accent isnt really there. they have better grammar than most locals. they are hardworking and dedicated. they come to singapore with strict requirements. in singapore you just need 5 O levels then if you join a private ech school, then diploma is earned so easily after less than 2 yrs.
working with filipinos would rather be a good choice given the common problems of local teachers. if govt encourage FT, then the preschool sector guys in charge should encourage FT also. the locals would be scared the shit of the job security.
look at how local IT guys complain that the indian and chinese guys take their job? this can happen to local ech teachers too.insider:
Part 2
As market is short of preschool teacher, the best and closest source that cc can get is from the Philippines. Qualified ('qualified' means having attended four full years of preschool ed degree and sometimes may couple with a master in preschool ed) Filipino teacher command higher salary than most local English teachers and they are generally above 100% better than most local teachers (coz you simply cannot compared a Filipino teacher who was trained full time for 4 to 6 years against those local ones who were trained for 9 to 18 months part time for a diploma...)
Sad to say, some local parents like to look at Filipinos with 'coloured eyes' and think they are maids (very difficult to disassociate this image). They look down on Filipinos teachers, citing that these teachers speak with an 'accent'. This comment makes my toes laugh as these teachers' accent is much more better than our general Singaporean accent. FYI, many of these teachers have very good family background with parents as business people or professional such as doctors.
Having said that, one has to be watchful of Filipino teachers who has no degree and experience in preschool ed... If your child's cc has Filipino teacher, enquire about her qualification and experience. If they fit the bill, embrace them. Filipinos are generally very warm and happy-lucky people and your child is in better hands as compared to the most-of-the-time grumpy local teachers.
Given a choice, I want to run a cc with a fleet of at least 50% Filipino qualified teachers. Generally, they have better working attitude than the locals (very sad to say this but Singaporean workers are quite 'spoilt' in a way)... -
I totally agree with the thread starter.
The preschool teachers in singapore lack passion. They do it for the sake of doing it(better than no job)
Many have the qualifications but so what? They had no choice thus doing it but many parents look at the certificates first.
If only the teachers pays were higher i think we will be able to get a better pool of teachers. If we start, slowly but surely our preschool teachers will be of better standards in time to come.
I do hope to see more teachers who really enjoy working with children and have revelavent qualifications in time to come. -
in terms of pay, a local poly grad with diploma in teaching and leadership gets $1.8k on average as starting gross salary after their 3 yr course. this doesnt differ much from other diploma holders from other fields from local poly.
as they progess to get degree and have valuable experience they would earn at least 2.2k on average.
those from private schools who get the diploma, usually 1.6k for fresh grad.
but of cos depends on experience too.
pay has been a common complain for this industry for decades. if so, why in the first place join the preschool sector? if they are really passionate and get market rate salary, then cannot complain alrdy.littlehelper:
I totally agree with the thread starter.
The preschool teachers in singapore lack passion. They do it for the sake of doing it(better than no job)
Many have the qualifications but so what? They had no choice thus doing it but many parents look at the certificates first.
If only the teachers pays were higher i think we will be able to get a better pool of teachers. If we start, slowly but surely our preschool teachers will be of better standards in time to come.
I do hope to see more teachers who really enjoy working with children and have revelavent qualifications in time to come. -
It depends alot on the Olevel results of the person.
If she does not score well for Os , among the few choices she has in poly would be early childhood. If she’s not sure of her career path and so limited option due to results she would choose early childhood(alot of ppl do this. My church friends " no choice what so do early childhood education" and when they complete this, they go to work as a child care teacher or further their studies. -
littlehelper:
It's not easy working with young children...pre-school teachers must have passion. The pay should also be higher esp with the compulsory diploma which preschool teachers must have by a certain year.I totally agree with the thread starter.
The preschool teachers in singapore lack passion. They do it for the sake of doing it(better than no job)
If only the teachers pays were higher i think we will be able to get a better pool of teachers. If we start, slowly but surely our preschool teachers will be of better standards in time to come.
I do hope to see more teachers who really enjoy working with children and have revelavent qualifications in time to come.
MOE should have more say in the curriculum of every kindergarten since they cannot get a standardized one for all. -
its not totally true that only those with lousy O levels go to early childhood. there are really smart people who go for the dip in ech in local poly. early childhood isnt the lousy course there. its the mid rated in terms of results to enter the course.
there are plenty of other courses that are \"easier to enter\" tha the ech course.littlehelper:
It depends alot on the Olevel results of the person.
If she does not score well for Os , among the few choices she has in poly would be early childhood. If she's not sure of her career path and so limited option due to results she would choose early childhood(alot of ppl do this. My church friends \" no choice what so do early childhood education\" and when they complete this, they go to work as a child care teacher or further their studies. -
high pay = ‘high’ passion. U need to be realistic.
if you get foreigner, they are committed to work till the contract end.
if you get local, u will worry when they will tender.
local demand more, especially english teacher, high pay, but how many centre can afford high pay teacher but low fee to satisfy unreasonable landloard and stingy parents? -
Agreed. And exactly! Those smart ones who go for the dip in early childhood education course are those who sincerely enjoy working with kids and how many of these would there be?
mummyhappy:
its not totally true that only those with lousy O levels go to early childhood. there are really smart people who go for the dip in ech in local poly. early childhood isnt the lousy course there. its the mid rated in terms of results to enter the course.
there are plenty of other courses that are \"easier to enter\" tha the ech course.littlehelper:
It depends alot on the Olevel results of the person.
If she does not score well for Os , among the few choices she has in poly would be early childhood. If she's not sure of her career path and so limited option due to results she would choose early childhood(alot of ppl do this. My church friends \" no choice what so do early childhood education\" and when they complete this, they go to work as a child care teacher or further their studies. -
I have recently gone thru, in fact, still going thru one round of hiring local teacher. The heartache of doing this is making me want to quit.
Starting advertising in Jan. March 1 supposed to have 1 start work - no show on that day and not contactable. Continue with advertisements etc… May 3, two teachers reported to work. May 4, told me don’t want to continue because feel that my centre is weird - with so many foreign teachers. May 9, 1 more started and this morning, she called to say she tender her resignation with immediate effect due to family issue.
The government has also cut off our route to hire foreign teachers. If it is not because I needed these 2 local headcounts, I would have gone straight for foreigners. I had 2 blissful years of almost 0 turnover because of this mostly foreign workforce. Now, with 1 renewal being rejected even after appeal. And the 2 local teachers that I had being poached by you know who…
Sorry I just had to vent. I am so so so frustrated.
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