Why hiring more teachers makes sense, even with falling student numbers

The teaching workforce – like the rest of Singapore’s working population – is growing older.

PHOTO: ST FILE

Summary

• Ramping up teacher recruitment despite a falling student population will help address growing educator responsibilities beyond academics.
• Educators today manage expanded roles, such as counselling and learning tech tools, alongside curriculum design.
• An ageing workforce and increasing digital demands add to the responsibilities of teachers.

SINGAPORE - With fewer students, why do we need more teachers? It’s a fair question.

On July 9, Education Minister Desmond Lee announced that his ministry will  raise annual teacher recruitment to 1,000 – a significant jump from the recent average of 650 new hires a year since 2019.

The number of teachers across primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges dropped from 31,834 in 2021 to 30,396 in 2023. Figures for 2024 are not yet available.

Despite falling student cohort sizes – from 428,600 in 2021 to 422,342 in 2023 – boosting the supply of teachers is not just timely, it is critical.

It is no longer enough to be a classroom teacher, a subject expert with little knowledge of how the real world works.

As educators support students beyond academics and prepare them for an increasingly uncertain world, their workloads have grown, along with the complexity of their responsibilities.

A better-staffed workforce could help give teachers some breathing space to meet these demands.

Throughout the school day, and sometimes beyond, they wear multiple “hats” apart from their formal teacher role – mediator, counsellor, disciplinarian, tech support and coach, among other things.

They design lesson materials and assessments to cater to students who learn at a slower or faster pace, plan activities to help their charges form friendships and learn in groups, and help them navigate online lessons.

They are required, to some extent, to be well versed with digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure students are using digital devices responsibly for learning, without getting distracted.

More attention is also being placed on students’ mental and emotional well-being, said Associate Professor Jason Tan from the National Institute of Education.

Another important aspect of the job of an educator today is partnering parents, especially for families with more needs.

With recent moves like full subject-based banding – where students can take subjects at different levels based on their ability – and the removal of mid-year examinations, teachers have more on their plate.

Full subject-based banding could result in more teachers being deployed to teach, as one class now has students taking a subject at three different levels. And the removal of mid-year exams means that lessons go on as per usual for all teachers, instead of only a few teachers being deployed as exam invigilators.

All these added roles have expanded what it means to be an educator today.

Mr Mike Thiruman, general secretary of the Singapore Teachers’ Union, said that with more teachers, schools will have more flexibility to spread out work and can implement the ministry’s reforms more meaningfully. 

Just by having one fewer lesson, a teacher could use the time for professional development, said Mr Thiruman. This could mean taking online courses to help hone teaching skills, or using that time to complete school or department projects.

“There are plenty of training opportunities that MOE (Ministry of Education) has created, but it’s whether teachers have time to partake in all of this,” he said.

An older workforce; teachers on reduced workloads

New teachers are needed to replace those who will retire in the near future.

The teaching workforce – like the rest of Singapore’s working population – is growing older. The median age of teachers was 43 as at December 2024, with about 11 per cent aged 55 and above. In 2019, the median age was 39.

While hiring more teachers is the right track, Mr Thiruman said it is not just about replacing teachers who retire.

“There are different schemes in service now, with teachers going on no-pay leave, taking breaks from service and doing flexi-adjunct work as well,” he said, and added that Singapore will need to recruit even more than 1,000 annually in the future.

Flexi-adjunct teachers are typically assigned fewer teaching hours and may not have the same administrative or co-curricular activity responsibilities as full-time teachers.

Currently, part-time and flexi-adjunct teachers likely make up a small proportion of the workforce, but if more choose to switch to such schemes to reduce their workload, it could put added strain on the profession.

A boost for teaching digital literacy

In the years ahead, teachers will be expected to use technology more meaningfully. Younger hires might have an edge over more senior teachers, who may not be as well versed with digital tools.

Students need to be equipped with digital skills, particularly in AI literacy – one of the areas of focus for the future. From 2021, all Secondary 1 students have received personal learning devices like tablets or laptops, underscoring this shift.

Since then, more of classroom learning has shifted online. Students use online apps like Padlet and Google Classroom to learn with others and complete exercises on the Singapore Student Learning Space, an online portal with resources and tools that can give students targeted feedback.

To guide students, teachers must first be comfortable with learning how to use such tools and platforms, which often falls outside the scope of their subject expertise.

Hence, the news that more teachers are in the pipeline is welcome for a profession that is reckoning with growing demands and expectations. This is rightly so, as the task of preparing students for an ever-changing world has never been more crucial.

This article was originally published on The Straits Times. Its inclusion on this website is solely for education purposes.