"So you are under which programme...?"

Every time I hear these six words, I die a little inside.

There are many teaching-related schemes and programmes, each designed for different groups of people. In this newsletter, I unpack these schemes and tell you how they are different.

Some schools may allow pre-uni interns to teach a whole class, while others may not even allow university graduates to be in a classroom unsupervised.

Undergrads / Fresh Grads / Young People

In ascending order of age:

TIP - Teaching Internship Programme

This internship can be done by A-level/poly grads and also university undergraduates who want to find out more about teaching. It is about three months, although male pre-enlistees may have their internship cut short by a bit.

This internship is mainly for exposure. The intern is attached to a mentor and goes to all their lessons and attends the mentor’s CCA sessions and meetings. It is unlikely that schools will assign a whole class to an intern and leave the class unsupervised. This is especially the case for A-level and poly grads. So this means that interns will shadow their mentor(s) for a week or two (or for the entire internship) and perhaps teach a few lessons, in a sort of guest-lecture style.

✅ Have to “do something” – usually a project of some sort.

✅ I did this. My project was the school CNY celebrations, and I managed the student mascot competition. It was fun.

💰This is a paid internship, and back then, it paid pretty well for A-level graduates.

SAP - School Attachment Programme

Not to be confused with the Special Assistance Plan, the SAP is for teaching scholars or teaching award holders¹ – usually university undergraduates. The programme usually lasts about a month to five weeks, during university summer break (late June to early Jul)

🤷🏻 Unclear if you have to “do something” – but you probably should! I can’t remember if I did something.

✅ I did this. It was the month before my exchange; I was on “ORD-mood” and kept a relatively low profile. I taught one Social Studies class on diversity and one English class on essay writing. This was to allow the School Staff Developer to write a report on my performance (oof). In hindsight, of course, I wished I’d done more over those five weeks.

💰Attachés are not paid. I believe the rationale is that they are already provided a monthly stipend by the Ministry, so they do not need to be paid for their work.

UT - Untrained Teacher

The untrained teacher is untrained because they have not completed their training at the National Institute of Education (NIE), which was simply called “IE” from 1973 to 1991. NIE takes in trainees every December for their Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme – see below.

UTs are (most likely) university graduates. There are two types of UTs – the fresh graduates and the mid-career people. Fresh graduates usually enter the school after the June school holidays (Term 3 Week 1), especially for fresh grads from local unis. It might be different for overseas graduates or Masters graduates, and they may end up joining earlier or later (Term 2 or Term 4).

Being university graduates, UTs are allowed a greater berth and are usually assigned a full load of classes, which they eventually teach full-time. They are given more opportunities to try out different teaching styles, unlike during their practicum (see below). Some senior UTs, like mid-career ones who are unaffected by the university calendar, join in January or March and are allowed to set test/exam papers by the end of the year.

❌ Although there is no need to “do something”, I’ve mooted the idea of a pen-recycling project and it will hopefully happen this week.

✅ I am currently doing this.

💰UTs are paid a normal civil servant wage.

PGDE - Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE)

Most local teachers have a PGDE – it is essentially a teaching diploma. Applications are open to fresh graduates as well as to people who have worked for some time and are looking to switch careers. As teaching is a recession-proof career, it can be very popular during economic downturns. The PGDE course used to be one year long, but it has since been extended to 16 months. PE teachers have a longer course period – two years.

Once hired (prior to UT), trainees have to sign a contract which includes a three-year teaching bond. It begins after they graduate from NIE. For those on MOE sponsorship, their scholarship/teaching award bond will overlap somewhat with this 3-year bond.

🔜 I will enter NIE in November. Language teachers (EL/CL/ML/TL) enter a bit earlier for bridging courses.

💰NIE trainees continue to be paid their UT wage when they are studying, and this is one of the perks of joining the profession – trainees are “paid to study”. They fulfil their bond in return.

BA/BSc (Education) (NIE)

The BA/BSc (Education) degree is relatively new – when I finished JC, I didn’t even give it a thought because it felt like it was too narrow in scope (it is an education degree after all, and i was concerned about future employability). Conversely, I thought an FASS degree was more general and would open up more opportunities after teaching. Hmm.

From what I’ve heard from my colleagues, the programme includes classes on pedagogy, education technology, education psychology, etc. This is on top of your regular content knowledge – like a major of some sort, usually tailored to your teaching subject.

Another plus is the length of the degree – graduates will finish in four years and start teaching straightaway. On the other hand, people who opt for the PGDE will have to complete their university degree first (usually four years), then continue on to the PGDE for an extra 1.5 years.

Practicum (PGDE or BA/BSc)

The teaching practicum is for people who are doing their PGDE or BA/BSc degree. It lasts for a term and is an assessment of one’s teaching skills, and everything is very regimented – trainees have to adhere to certain teaching routines, follow some theories, etc. A supervisor from NIE will come down to the school and conduct an assessment (or a Formal Observation) sometime towards the end of the term. This is an important part of the PGDE course – it is not a formality; there are teachers who fail their practicum and have to repeat it. Those on sponsorship may risk financial penalties. Failing one’s practicum usually leaves a black mark on their record, even if they perform splendidly the second round.

Fun fact (from the MOE website): MOE used to pay polytechnic and university graduates differently – e.g. Poly graduates would be on pay scale A, and university graduates on pay scale B. They’ve changed that now, so everybody’s on the same scale. So yes, there are (were?) diploma holder teachers.

BT - Beginning Teacher

A teacher is considered a BT for three years after they finish NIE. They are given a lighter teaching load, especially in their first year. This is to enable them to acclimatise themselves to their school – they have to remain there for three years (barring circumstances like health, PSC, etc).

The first year is very important for a BT – by the end of the year, the school will determine the BT’s Current Estimated Potential (CEP)². It is “the largest job size an officer is assessed to be capable of handling in future.”³

Casual Schemes / Older Teachers / Others

There are also other casual teaching schemes for people who are trained teachers but wish to take on a lighter load because of family, health, or age.

In order of casualness, beginning from very casual:

SRE - Scheme for Relief Educators (aka RT)

These are your relief teachers. Contracts last anywhere from, say, two weeks to a term, or even longer. The job description is fluid; the only requirement for a full day’s wage is that you clock in and work for 5.5 hours.

✅ I did this. I was on an older scheme called Relief Allied Educator (READ) when I taught after NS. Back then, non-degree holders were paid $70/day and undergraduates were paid $80. Now, both are paid the same – $80/day.

FAJT - Flexi-Adjunct

Almost all Flexis are trained teachers with a PGDE or Dip Ed. They are managed directly by the school.

Many years ago, my office neighbour was a Flexi and she said that either party could terminate the contract with 24 hours’ notice. Flexis have a much lighter workload – for example, my neighbour had Fridays off because her daughter was taking the PSLE that year and she wanted to coach her.

The best way to discuss Flexis is to compare them to the Contracts. Flexis typically just teach and do not have peripheral duties like CCA, committees, etc, which the Contracts may have. They do not have medical/dental benefits, bonuses, etc. Like the SRE/RTs, they have to fulfil the 5.5-hour daily requirement. It’s like a part-time job – you only get paid for days which you come to work.

Both Flexis and Contracts may be employed to provide support for full time teachers, so they could be attached to larger classes as a second teacher.

CAJT - Contract-Adjunct

CAJTs usually negotiate their contract on a yearly basis. As such, their employment status is technically more stable, and the notice period is usually a month rather than a day. I believe they also get paid during the school holidays. CAJTs are managed by MOE.

AED - Allied Educators

Over time, the scope of the scheme has been narrowed. A long, long time ago, some AEDs could have performed the duties of teacher aides and they might not have degrees.

Re-employed Teacher

Did you know the civil service retirement age has been raised from 62 to 63⁴? Upon retirement, teachers can get re-employed, but their medical benefits will be changed to the current MSO scheme (Medisave‑cum‑Subsidised Outpatient), which could be stingier than the older schemes that they were previously on. Re-employment contracts are generally negotiated and renewed annually, although previously it was done every three years.

Scholarships

I will not go into detail about these four tiers (listed in decreasing amount of benefits, like monthly allowance, opportunities, etc.), except to say that all TA holders study in Singapore. There are no TA holders who study overseas.

PSC Scholar (Teaching)

EMS - Education Merit Scholar

TS - Teaching Scholar

TA - Teaching Award

1. I have struggled, for the longest time, to explain to friends and family in Mandarin that I am a TA holder. I don’t like describing myself as a teaching scholar, because I am not one. So it would be wrong to use 奖学金得主 – it feels like misrepresentation. 助学金 is a no-no as well because it means bursary. The recent Lianhe Zaobao article solves this problem once and for all – the award is called 教育部教学奖得主.

2. Some people jokingly refer to it as "Career End Point”.

3. https://www.psd.gov.sg/press-room/parliamentary-replies/written-reply-to-parliamentary-question-on-statistical-changes-in-current-estimated-potential-cep-in-the-civil-service

4. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/psd-raise-retirement-reemployment-age-public-officers-ndr-866446.
I’m confused with the headline, which says public officers are to “benefit”.