SINGAPORE — Teachers in Singapore schools are spending fewer hours teaching and marking, but they are clocking more work time overall due to non-teaching tasks.
These include lesson planning, student counselling, co-curricular activities and communicating with parents, a new global survey has found.
Singapore's teachers reported working an average of 47.3 hours a week, higher than the OECD average of 41, according to the Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis) released on Oct 7.
In the previous edition of the survey in 2018, teachers here said they put in 46 hours a week.
The survey's findings also indicate that Singapore teachers are quick to adopt digital technologies, with three in four using artificial intelligence (AI) to teach or facilitate student learning. This is more than double the global average of 36 per cent.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development study polled 194,000 teachers worldwide, with a total of 55 education systems joining the latest round.
The Talis survey is conducted every five to six years by the OECD to help countries review policies to improve their teaching profession and provide information on teacher education and professional development, workload, instructional beliefs and teaching practices.
This is Singapore's third time participating. About 3,500 teachers and their principals here from all 145 secondary schools, and a random selection of 10 private schools, took the online questionnaire from April to August 2024.
The majority of Singapore teachers — more than eight in 10 — were satisfied with their jobs. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said that it will keep on working to ensure the teaching profession remains attractive for the long term.
Teachers here said they spent 17.7 hours a week on actual teaching, similar to the 18 hours in 2018. The OECD average was 22.7 hours.
Time spent on marking was 6.4 hours, down from 7.5 hours in 2018.
Administrative work and preparing lessons took up four hours and 8.2 hours respectively. In 2018, teachers spent 3.8 hours and 7.3 hours on these duties.
MOE said the total working hours recorded in 2018 and 2024 are similar.
It added that the allocation of teaching hours relative to hours spent on tasks outside the classroom reflects the unique role of teachers in the education system, which emphasises holistic student development.
"This should not be viewed as teachers spending less time on core teaching duties, but rather as a deliberate policy design requiring educators to also dedicate time to students' non-academic development.
"Singapore teachers do not just teach students academic skills in the classrooms, but also engage them with a variety of activities outside of classrooms which are important to develop them into well-rounded individuals."
Other tasks done outside the classroom include professional learning activities, working with colleagues and counselling students.
Kerry Lim, 43, Greendale Secondary School's year head for the lower-secondary cohort, said that after the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers have noticed more students spending time alone, not interacting as much with friends and being stuck on their devices.
Hence on top of their regular tasks, teachers have also been trying to get students to disconnect from their devices and connect more with their friends.
Certain workload-related factors, such as administrative duties and marking, were identified by local teachers as their main sources of stress. Being responsible for student achievement was another stress factor.
While the OECD average for teachers who experience stress "a lot" in their work is 19 per cent, in Singapore, 27 per cent of teachers reflected this sentiment — up by four percentage points from 2018.
Stress is inevitable in every workplace, said MOE, and it is unrealistic to eliminate all stress factors.
It added that teachers' well-being is supported in areas like whether they have autonomy in school governance and have support systems.
MOE said it has been looking at ways to lighten the workload of teachers, including piloting a feature to allow parents to electronically submit their child's documents for absence, like medical certificates.
The ministry has also laid out clearer guidelines to set boundaries on after-hours communications between teachers and parents, and invested in automated marking features and AI tools for assessment to ease marking workload.
The Talis report noted that younger teachers under 30 were more likely to report feeling stressed "a lot" than their colleagues aged 50 and above.
MOE said that younger teachers will take time to hone their craft in areas such as lesson planning, understanding the curriculum, and navigating workplace dynamics and parent interactions.
Their confidence will grow as they become more competent, it said, adding that it will continue to strengthen support for new teachers.
Also, 40 per cent of teachers under the age of 30 intended to leave the profession within the next five years — a nine percentage point drop since 2018, but double the OECD average of 20 per cent.
Overall, 29 per cent reported planning to leave teaching. The main reasons cited were personal or family matters (71 per cent), an interest in pursuing further education (50 per cent) and shifting to a non-teaching position within education (46 per cent).
On the salary front, 55 per cent of Singapore teachers surveyed "agree" or "strongly agree" that they are satisfied with their salaries. This figure has fallen by 17 percentage points since 2018, although it is higher than the OECD average of 39 per cent.
The Talis study showed that 71 per cent of teachers in Singapore feel that teachers are valued in society, compared with the OECD average of 22 per cent. This figure remained comparable with 2018's.
Teachers here — 57 per cent — feel that their views are valued by policymakers, higher than the OECD average of 16 per cent. This figure has grown by seven percentage points since 2018.
Teaching was also the first career choice for more than seven in 10 teachers here.
For novice teachers — those with up to five years of teaching experience — 79 per cent feel this way.
[[nid:723580]]
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
