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Mr Speaker, as we mark Teachers’ Day, let us thank the educators who have shaped our lives and continue to shape our children’s future. We honour our teachers, allied educators, early childhood educators and school support staff, and all who contribute to our children’s learning and development.
During a recent dialogue, a beginning teacher spoke about wanting to become better at teaching, to reflect on lessons, understand what helped students learn, and improve the next lesson.
Yet alongside classroom teaching came CCA duties, committee work and other responsibilities. Finding time for that reflection often meant continuing the work outside school hours.
What stayed with me was the educator’s desire to grow in the profession. We should nurture that commitment by giving our educators the time and support to develop their craft. That is the question at the heart of this motion: how do we build a sustainable educator workforce that can carry Singapore’s next phase of education reform?
As a former educator, a Labour MP and an adviser to the Singapore Teachers’ Union or STU, I am grateful for opportunities to interact and work with our education unions through dialogue.
This year, STU marks its 80th anniversary, while the Singapore Tamil Teachers’ Union celebrates its 75th. We recognise generations of union leaders and members who have strengthened the profession and improved educators’ working lives.
I also acknowledge the contributions of the Education Services Union, the Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Union and the Singapore Malay Teachers’ Union. I thank my fellow STU advisors and our NTUC and union colleagues whose research, consultations and proposals have helped shape this motion.
Sir, as we broaden what success means for our students, we ask educators to support their well-being, respond to diverse needs and guide them through the technological change. The sustainability of education reform depends on the sustainability of its educators. Their morale, their growth and retention must be treated as a strategic national issue.
I will propose three shifts:
how we measure reform,
how we redesign educators’ work,
and how we support the wider education ecosystem.
My fellow STU adviser, Mr David Hoe, will then develop our proposals on programme workload and operational support.
First, measure what reform means for the educator. MOE has introduced support through its refreshed Teacher Work Management Framework, flexible work arrangements and clearer school-home communication boundaries. We welcome these measures.
The question is whether teachers experience consistent improvement in their daily working lives. In our dialogues, some teachers supported leaders who stopped programmes and simplified their work. Others felt new activities kept on accumulating.
I therefore ask MOE, working with STU and the relevant education unions, to define and publish a set of educator-sustainability indicators, tracked alongside student outcomes.
These should address real questions. Are excessive working hours coming down? Is protected time for planning and professional development usable? Are well-being and retention improving? Are the gains reaching teachers across subjects, school levels and career stages?
Sir, MOE informed this House in November 2025 that its data showed teachers working an average of 53 hours a week. Its monitoring covers teachers across primary, secondary, junior college and centralised institute levels.
The Ministry also acknowledged that, while total working hours had remained stable over the years, the complexity of teachers’ work had continually increased. That distinction matters.
Stable hours do not, by themselves, tell us whether the demands within those hours are sustainable. Sir, workload is also shaped by the number and range of learning needs of the students whom the teacher has to supports. I'm aware that MOE already implements smaller class sizes on a needs basis.
Would the Ministry consider reducing class sizes in more instances, particularly where teachers are supporting students with complex learning needs? Smaller classes could give teachers more scope and opportunity to provide individual attention, build relationships and respond to different learning needs.
This is why I ask MOE to work with our education unions to publish educator sustainability indicators alongside student outcomes that covers workload, morale, professional growth and retention.
These would help us assess whether our reforms are giving teachers the time and support to do their work well. The indicators should draw on existing information and representative sampling, with minimal additional reporting. Their purpose is to guide improvements in working conditions.
Recognition matters too. Mother Tongue teachers raised concerns about how their expertise and contributions to cultural and school-wide programmes are being recognised and sometimes not. Experienced colleagues wanted the capacity to mentor new teachers properly. Others continued teaching through flexi-adjunct arrangements while managing family commitments.
We should learn what makes these arrangements sustainable, what makes sense, while providing sufficient cover so that colleagues do not simply absorb the remaining work. Educators should be able to grow professionally and care for their loved ones while continuing to serve our children.
Second, use the AI momentum to redesign work together with unions. Sir, there is a history we can build on. Mr Teo Chee Hean, then Minister for Education, recalled that when the first computer masterplan was rolled out for schools began in 1997–1998, teachers’ union members wanted to help train their members to use computers for teaching.
As STU marks its anniversary, I hope MOE and our education unions will deepen this partnership and shape the next transition together. We welcome MOE’s support for teachers in using AI, including the Teacher AI Literacy Professional Learning Roadmap.
One teacher explained that adapting an AI-generated lesson still required training time and support, and considerable judgement, because the teacher, only the teacher, understood the students’ needs. Others struggled to attend professional development amid competing duties.
This is where the Labour Movement brings practical experience here. Through Company Training Committees, unions and employers work together on transformation and workforce development. As NTUC reported in August, more than 3,800 CTCs had been formed. AI-Ready SG supports workers and businesses in adapting to AI.
We can bring that partnership approach into education, adapted to schools’ needs. I ask MOE and the relevant unions to jointly review the workload impact of major AI and EdTech rollouts, with evaluation proportionate to their scale, through the Teacher Work Management Framework.
Teachers and our unions can work together early to identify tasks to stop, simplify or redesign. Training should include protected time, peer support and clear guidance on responsible use. The review must account for the work of learning the tool, checking its output and completing remaining processes.
We should avoid introducing a digital system while retaining the manual process. Most importantly, we should establish whether time saved is returned as protected planning time, student engagement or even rest, and whether excessive total hours are reduced.
This would enhance our teachers’ well-being, which in turn will enhances our children’s well-being.
Third, support the wider education ecosystem. Sir, we must also recognise early childhood educators, allied educators, private and adjunct educators, tutors and student-care staff. Their roles differ, but their working conditions matter to the children and families they serve. Let me begin with primary-school student care.
Following the abrupt closure of a student-care operator earlier this year, teachers took on additional supervisory responsibilities. I raised concerns about the extra load. Building on MOE’s governance review, we should strengthen student care’s standards, staffing and operational resilience, while keeping it affordable through appropriately targeted assistance.
Continuity arrangements should mobilise suitable providers and support staff to reduce the impact to teachers and students. A dependable after-school care ecosystem supports working families and protects teachers’ capacity for their core responsibilities.
Early childhood education deserves attention too. During a recent dialogue, a kindergarten teacher described photographing activities and documenting the learning while trying to remain fully attentive to the children. She suggested fewer, and more meaningful observations.
Her account connects with ESU’s survey of 1,312 respondents. Forty-nine per cent were concerned with administrative workload, and the same proportion with work-life balance. Sixty-five per cent identified inclusion and diverse learning needs as an additional training priority.
These findings provide agencies, employers and ESU with a basis for focused action. I ask MOE to work with MSF, ECDA and ESU on documentation demands, staffing and relief cover, predictable working arrangements, protected breaks and practical well-being support.
Professional development should include specialist advice, mentorship, and career pathways that recognise growing expertise through appropriate progression and remuneration.
For private and adjunct educators, we should likewise make workforce upskilling and job-redesign support more accessible, including CTC-style partnerships and relevant AI-Ready SG training.
We can support these workers while maintaining a broader understanding of educational success. Their professional contribution deserves recognition without encouraging greater pressure on children to pursue just grades.
Sir, these three shifts are connected: measure whether conditions improve, redesign work with educators, and strengthen the support across the ecosystem. Let me return to the beginning teacher I spoke about earlier, who wanted time to reflect on lessons and become better at teaching.
We should make room for such aspirations. Our children benefit when their teachers have the time and energy to understand them and help them grow.
I look forward to deepening our work together with educators, unions and MOE, and turning these proposals into improvements educators can feel in their daily lives.
This Teachers’ Day, let our appreciation be reflected in the time, support and confidence we give educators to build a lasting career in education.
Mr David Hoe will now develop our proposals on managing programme workload and strengthening operational support, so that teachers have more time for the students who need them.
