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Teacher's Pay

Teachers will get a hike in their salaries and fatter bonuses with effect from next year, the Ministry of Education announced.

This announcement brought cheers to the 29,000 teachers in Singapore, at least in my opionion :)

It is a challenging time and exciting time to be a teacher in Singapore.

In this era, knowledge is dynamic and ever-changing and these demand constant upgrading of the teachers to imbibe the constant changing information, transform them into knowledge and impart to the students.

The Ministry is giving generous scholarships, bursaries and allowances for teachers to upgrade their qualifications, from bachelor to Masters and even doctorates.

Imparting knowledge to the students in this era may be more challenging than the yester-years. Now there are a wide range of techological devices to impart knowledge. Different facets of knowledge transfer asides, the students of today may be more sophiscated than before and the teachers of today have to really connect with the students to guide them along.

Teachers, apart from teaching, also spend hours on co-curricular activities.

So with all these challenges, it may be justifiable for the pay hikes of teachers.

But are the teachers of today more interested in teaching as a career only or because of the intrinisc benefits they obtain from the transformation and guiding of students?

It is hard to tell.

But what is evident in Singapore is that our education system, honed and refined through the years have become internationally acclaimed and become our Singapore quality export.

Maths and Science textbooks produced by Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) have been reproduced in some states of America to be used as teaching tools, to take for an example.

Knowledge is criticial to today's economy as in a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is power, therein lies Singapore's heavy investment in education. However, other countries like China and India are playing catch up.

Singapore students may be enjoying a high quality of education but their demeanours still need to be improved.

Just look around, many teenagers displaying all forms of intimacy at a young age. Giving up seats to elderly may not be in their "dictionaries" too.

Moral education shall be stressed, at this era, where a host of changes confound lives and where morality is slowing and surely declining.
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