First, allow me to report that Singaporeans from all walks of life
have expressed their support for the teacher aide scheme proposed by
the Singapore Teachers’ Union (STU), including Ms Ho Hui Ling and
Mrs Prasanna Jayachandran Pillai who had also expressed some
concerns in the Forum Page (“Why hire Filipino teacher aides and not
S’poreans?”, ST, Sept 4). We thank them for their support and
feedback.
I should clarify that teacher aides are paraprofessionals who would
be able to:
- Assist teachers with classroom planning and
administration;
- Assist teachers with classroom instruction,
not in direct teaching;
- Help in managing student behaviour;
- Develop and implement curriculum based on
students’ individual needs together with the teachers; and
- Perform record-keeping and documentation
tasks.
These are a few broad paraprofessional duties
of the teacher aides. To elaborate on one of the duties, in
assisting teachers with classroom planning and administration, the
qualified teacher aide should be able to maintain instructional
equipment, provide technical assistance; and obtain, prepare and
organize instructional materials. Teacher aides can also assist in
administrative chores such as photocopying and data entry, though it
is not their main job description. These chores could be assigned to
clerical or office assistants.
The purpose of the proposed teacher aides’
scheme is to further enhance the quality of teaching and the quality
of our teachers’ lives. Teacher aides would free up valuable time
for teachers to reflect on their work and provide qualitatively
improved instruction for the benefit of our children.
If the scheme is approved by the Ministry of
Education (MOE), STU will source for qualified persons including
retired teachers and retrenched or unemployed Singaporeans first, as
suggested Ms Ho and Mrs Pillai, and then consider other options. If
Singaporeans are willing to perform the paraprofessional roles of
teacher aides, whose income would be probably lower than that of
beginning teachers, STU and its co-operative, EDUCARE, will provide
the necessary training for them to become teacher aides. STU will
work with the relevant agencies and ministries such as the Workforce
Development Agency (WDA) and MOE as well as the National Trades
Union Congress’ (NTUC) Joblink to ensure the success of the scheme.
We understand that MOE is exploring various options to help
teachers, including hiring more teachers. STU will work with MOE to
achieve this.
Once again, we would like to thank all who have
voiced their support for the teacher aides scheme, at the same time
giving constructive feedback. STU would like to invite Singaporeans
who believe they have what it takes to be good teacher aides to
contact us at 6452 4403 as STU, being a proactive union, is in the
process of building a pool of potential teacher aides while waiting
for MOE’s decision.
Mike Thiruman,
President
Singapore Teachers' Union
