Secondary Arts, Humanities and English Classroom Teacher
About the Job
Quality teachers and first-rate instruction are just some of the factors highlighted in the McKinsey Report which placed Singapore high on its list of the world’s best-performing school systems.
The Singapore Ministry of Education focuses on teacher quality, and is committed to grooming and hiring professional teachers and capable school leaders from Singapore and overseas. International teachers have been part of our school scene for generations, actively enriching the teaching and learning environment and providing variety to our students’ perspectives.
Find out more about the Singapore Ministry of Education at www.moe.gov.sg.
Be Different. Teach in Singapore.
We are looking for dedicated and highly motivated classroom teachers for our Singapore schools. If you have a degree in Geography, History, English Language/Literature, Music, Art or Physical Education and a teaching certificate (e.g. B.Ed, PGCE, M.Ed, M.A.T), excellent communication skills and a passion for education, we want you!
You can look forward to a challenging career that expects you to develop your students both within and beyond the classroom. Successful candidates will be offered an attractive remuneration package, which is commensurate with your educational qualifications and work experience.*
Keen to find out more?
Find out more about teaching in Singapore at www.moe.gov.sg/teach.
We conduct recruitment all year round. If you wish to be considered for positions in Jan/Mar 2013, please email your curriculum vitae, completed application form and transcript of your degree(s) to moe_fru@moe.gov.sg by 28 Oct 2012. Please also include ‘Australia 2012: Application’ as the subject of your email. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.
LEAD ● CARE ● INSPIRE
* All terms and conditions are subject to review and change from time to time without prior notification. The Ministry of Education (Singapore) reserves the right to decide on the terms and conditions to be offered. No reasons will be provided for selection and non-selection of candidates.
Editor’s Note: Why does our MOE recruits teachers from Australia when there are so many jobless PMETs trying to look for work and some even have to drive cabs in order to survive? I have heard of many PMETs who are keen to teach but they were not given the opportunity. The above advertisement appears in one of the Australia’s main online job portal careerone.com.
MOE has recruited many Chinese teachers from China and now wants to recruit English teachers from India and even Australia!! Most of the China teachers teach Chinese as 1st language, while our locals teach Chinese as 2nd language. Maybe MOE thinks that our language skills are so “bad” that they rather recruit from overseas.
Actually, they are looking for people who can have excellent classroom management skills. Content knowledge is not very important. You just need to make all the students listen to you and respect you and your job is half done. The students won’t know that your results were not so good in school.
Some people just have the charisma to attract the attention of even the most mischevious students. The interviewers can see whether you have the charisma or not.
Anyway, just be prepared that it is a very tough job. You need a lot of resilience and drive to work on the weekends even when some of the students don’t even appreciate your efforts. The kids are too pampered nowadays that they can argue with you since they have their parents as shields.
Just bcoz they are PRC, that don’t meant that they are excellent in Chinese language, calligraphy, painting or other Chinese culture stuff. But many local schools will appoint these PRC teachers to be judges for Chinese language or culture competitions.
Just bcoz they are Caucasians, ppl felt that they knew everythings about the English language & culture. You can find many Caucasians from USA, UK, Canada, NZ, Australia teaching English in PRC, ROC, S’pore, Malaysia & indonesia etc.
Right, and who is going to ask them. Maybe form a political association of the unemployed, and hopefully there are 50.1 percent to vote for an alternative government.
This is part of a poorly implemented plan to give SG the so-called international global city feel.
The idea was good but the operation was terribly messed up. To make things worse, the PAP refused to roll back some of the plans.
Too bad, ang moh tua kee.
The reality is that most ang mohs can talk and can beat locals in terms of charisma and presence by virtue of their looks, their accent, their upbringing — less academic, more fun, more outgoing, more verbal, more questioning.
The reality is also the undergraduate rigor of Aussie unis are much more relaxed compared to S’pore unis. Many Sinkies whose results cannot qualify for local unis are often A students and dean’s list in Aussie unis. And yet any Aussie with a degree is seen as FT and better than any local Sinkie.
Based on feedback from friends and acquaintances who went thru civil service interviews, I feel that the civil service HR is now the same as the HRs in MNCs and the private sector in favouring foreigners over locals. E.g. Between a similarly-experienced 40-yr old Sinkie and a 40-yr old angmoh FT, confirmed the angmoh will get the job and fast-track to PR status.
Another very common situation is between a 35++ local Sinkie and a 25-yr old PR, the PR will be preferred by civil service instead of the older Sinkie.
HR attitudes and practices in civil service are now not much different than in private sector.
Is anyone going to write in to make this known to the public? Cos if no one is, I am going to.
Staff in MOE is only interested in “Showing”. In this case, they are trying to show that they want diversity and globalization. The Ad said “Be Different”. BShit.
If you have in MOE, you will realizes that that is the last thing they want. The older brainwashed teachers will impose their brainwashed nonsense onto the new teachers and students.
Sorry, I meant “If you have been in MOE, …” New initiatives mean more things to write onto their KPIs forms, and thus more bonus.
The one main reason why the Ministry of Education is employing foreign teachers in English and the humanities is this: people like Mr. Gilbert Goh cannot spell nor write in proper, grammatical English, and he even writes and thinks in Singlish. This government is a lousy government, and so is the system, but before you even jump to write and say something, please brush up on your English. You would not even pass in an English test for IELTS even if you took it because you cannot and do not write proper English!
In order to open a Pte Sch, they must register the pte sch with MOE with approval.
However MOE willing to go & employ foreigner from country like India where we do not even know the Quality Assurance of their university & how competent are the graduate to become a teacher in Singapore but will never recognize & employ Singaporean whose distance learning degree is approve for registration with MOE & Pte Sch can use the term “Registered with the Ministry of Education”!
So sad to have this kind of thing happen on education in Singapore at the cost of jeopardizing our student. =~
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/current-affairs-lounge-17/st-70-teachers-hired-india-teach-singapore-schools-3180415-3.html
The ugly true fact is Singapore Government rather choice foreigner to take up the job in Singapore by creating a barrier for Singaporean then to develop Singaporean for the job.
Singapore Government claims that they needs foreigner to take up the job of early childhood teacher because Singaporean do not wish to take up the job.
But the true is Singaporean who has completed Secondary School education with GCE N and Diploma/Degree is not competent to enroll for Diploma in Pre-school Education – Teaching (DPE-T) course to be a early childhood teacher.
However foreigner who has completed their Secondary School education with English is recognized to be equivalent as having 5 GCE ‘O’ level credits including English grade B4.
The only solution is to allow Singapore education system to have one main stream in Secondary School Education that lead to GCE O that benefits Singaporean to be as competent as our foreigner peer.
However Singapore Government, Member(s) of Parliament, Minster(s) & etc did not listen to us and rather shortchange Singaporean to make the Education System from bad to worst.
For example, the Ministry of Education, Singapore did not pay their Management Support Officer (Non-Diploma) (previously known as Corporate Support Officer) higher salary for NA GCE N gradates compare to NT GCE N gradates.
But why is NA GCE N graduate is allowed to enter directly to Higher Nitec and Polytechnic Foundation Programme while NT GCE N graduate can only enter Nitec courses?
This is discrimination, unfair and prolonged education system for Singaporean.
Thumb down for Singapore Government, Member(s) of Parliament, Minster(s), Ministry of Education, Singapore & etc.
MOE has tried to recruit Singaporean teachers. But the workload is very heavy, and many English and Humanities teachers have resigned or taken a pay cut by demoting themselves to adjunct teachers – teach only, no cca.
The overwhelming majority of teachers work 55-60 hours a week, inclusive of bringing work home to be done at night or over the weekend.
If people think teaching is an overpaid job with lots of long holidays, you are always welcome to quit your current job and try it out.
If Singaporean teachers feel that way, foreign teachers will feel the same way cause they are educated & focus on work-life balance (human right) too.
I always want to be a teacher but I do not have a GCE O & Poly Diploma or Local/Overseas On Campus degree.
I only have completed Singapore Secondary Education with a NT GCE N & distance learning degree from one of the Private School Registered with the Ministry of Education, Singapore.
So it is MOE who is discrimination because they do not even consider me for an interview when most of my education are learn in Singapore but MOE will open their hands to welcome foreigners from country like India where we do not even know the Quality Assurance of their university & how competent are the graduate to become a teacher in Singapore.
I think MOE is like the rest of the statutory boards, they prefer to hire graduates from local NUS, NTU, SMU, SIM or graduates from those foreign leading universities e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, MIT, Harvard, Yale, UNSW etc.
For Chinese language teachings, i know MOE hired many PRC teachers. These PRC teachers are also assigned to be incharge or involved in Chinese culture matters, regardless whether their knowledge or experience are up to the standard or not.
Anyone knows anything about the hiring situation for the English, Malay & Tamil languages or cultures teachings?
However MOE employed Teacher from counties like India to teach English.
My question is our Singapore Sec Sch education in GCE N & O and Post Sec education in GCE A in English worst then India Sec Sch & Post Sec education in English?
If yes, why do MOE jeopardize our education & teach us crap?
If no, are MOE discrimination to choice foreigners over Singaporean?
i think its good to have these Aussie teachers to teach Arts, Humanities & English cause its give Spore students different aspect and approach in studying these subjects. And local teachers can learn from them new approach in teaching these subjects..its a new world out there with new technology and thoughts. But maybe in ratio 1:2
If i remember correctly, 18% of seats in NUS/NTU are taken up by foreign students. MOE ministers said they will reduce the number of foreign students enrolled so that S’poreans will have better chances to be enroll into NTU/NUS.
But from what i see here, things are not really improving. PAP wants to offer foreign students more chances to study & work here!
http://www.iss.nus.edu.sg/GraduateProgrammes/EventCalendar/RegisterEvent/tabid/263/id/18/Default.aspx
When a S’porean applicant fails to get a seat in NUS/NTU. Not bcoz he/she is lousy but he/she isn’t given the chance to prove him/herself.
I have read some comments here that says Singaporean doesn’t want to teach because of the high work load. It may apply to some teachers here but I am very sure there are thousands of PMETs here willing to take up teaching but were rejected. I know because I was one of those who applied and got turned down. I am not afraid of hardwork. I just needed a decent job to survive. That was a few years ago when MOE was complaining that they were seriously short of teachers. Meanwhile they give the jobs to those who don’t really want them or to foreigners. Where do we as mature Singaporeans stand? We wasted 2.5 years serving the NS and countless years of reservists training to come to this stage? All for the sake of globalisation? Of making Singapore into a metropolitan city? What for? To be rank as no. 1 in something again? I don’t need that. I just want to be able to earn my keep to feed my family. Is that too much to ask?
The big corporations in Singapore must wake up and their decision makers must wake up. They have to realise that they too will grow old one day and who knows? Their fortune might change and may one day end up as one if us. In Summary, life is short but why does big corporations and govt agencies have to make our lives miserable as well, sigh…..
Oh btw, I have a BBA in Finance from a university in USA. I have a grade 8 in music and very active in sports like golf, mountain biking, billard, bowling etc. I was an all rounder in school. I have the pre-requisites to be a teacher but was not even given a reply.
Nicolas, when you applied for teaching job, were you jobless or in a low-pay survival temp/contract job? If so then MOE will surely not call you up for any interview. They will see you as being “useless” or “valueless”. The selection process by MOE is very elitist i.e. you need to be employed in a “good sounding” job and your salary must also be “respectable” if you intend to be a mid-career teacher. Starting pay for younger teachers is around $3K, so MOE is very particular about “job switchers”.
In fact if you’re 35+, you are expected to be at least a senior executive earning at least $4.5K when applying to become a teacher. Such senior mid-career teachers are given starting pay of $5K by MOE. I know becoz my neighbour is one of these older mid-career teachers.
S’pore civil service practices a very elitist and ageism culture. This is not only for their HR recruitment methods, but also in the thinking of many civil servants in the ministries and stat boards. This is the reason why 99.9% of older PMEs who are jobless or under-employed are never even given a reply when they apply for govt jobs.
I’ve worked in civil service before, and I can say that civil service are VERY welcoming of older PMEs who are senior executives in MNCs and GLCs and want to come into govt jobs. This whole setup and thinking is very stupid, becoz most of these so-called “high flyers” in the private sector want to come into civil service becoz they want a more relaxed job and lifestyle with high pay. Many are married women who want to have babies and be able to take 4 months maternity at one shot without fear of losing a high-paid job. Even for guys, they want to be able to knock off on-the-dot at 6pm everyday, enjoy iron ricebowl 5-day week job and confirmed bonuses. I get the nasty feeling that many of the civil servants actually know these attitudes, but they simply close both eyes.
On the other hand, if you’re currently jobless due to circumstances beyond your control or forced to take on low-pay temp jobs for survival, the govt sees you as “untalented” and fit only to be re-trained for cleaners, F&B waiters, hotel workers, and other low-wage jobs. Even though you are well educated and have proven to be hardworking in your previous job history.