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MOE to rotate heads of departments who have served in same school for more than eight years

2024-03-27 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – Senior educators in leadership positions who have been in the same schools for more than eight years will be reshuffled from 2027, to allow more schools to benefit from their experience.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that one to two senior key personnel – who hold designations like head of department and year head – from each school are expected to be rotated each year. This is to ensure stability of the school’s leadership team.

Currently, principals and vice-principals are rotated every five to seven years.

In a statement provided to The Straits Times, MOE said this new scheme will “enable senior key personnel to grow professionally and build a dynamic fraternity of educators”.

Other senior key personnel are school staff developers and lead teachers.

“The rotations will provide senior key personnel with opportunities to contribute to other schools, which will benefit from their years of experience and expertise in education,” said the ministry.

MOE said it will work with school leaders, where needed, to help these educators identify suitable postings for rotation. They can apply through MOE’s internal posting exercise for a posting to any MOE school with vacancies. MOE said that supervisors will work closely with these educators to plan for the movements, taking into consideration the needs of the school and staff.

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According to a report by Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao on March 27, key personnel aged 55 and above do not need to be rotated to another school.

Mr Mike Thiruman, general secretary of the Singapore Teachers’ Union (STU), told ST that there is bound to be a learning curve for senior educators who have to leave their comfort zones and move to new schools.

Mr Mike Thiruman, general secretary of the Singapore Teachers’ Union talks about the union’s work at the STU Ordinary Delegates Conference in November 2023. PHOTO: SINGAPORE TEACHERS’ UNION

He said: “Just imagine, I’m a senior KP (key personnel), like an anchor figure in my old school, then I’m going to a new school. I’m practically a newbie. So how do we ensure that this KP who goes in is successful in the new school?”

Mr Thiruman said that there needs to be proper support mechanisms to help key personnel who transfer to another school to assume leadership duties.

“It has to be structured and cannot be just left to chance. The SOPs (standard operating procedures) need to be ironed out, and KPs need to have discussions with the school leaders about their vision,” he said.

He said that the new scheme especially benefits younger key personnel as they have a longer runway in the fraternity.

“I think in the overall scheme of things, for our individual and long-term employability, it’s better for us to try out different things in the organisation so that we become valuable and can contribute more.”