About 5,000 teachers have left Singapore’s teaching force in the past five years, reported by Singapore’s Ministry of Education on October 3, prompting calls from observers to make efforts to retain them by reducing their administrative duties.

A Singaporean school - Illustrative photo (Photo: straitstimes.com)

Nearly 70 percent of resigned teachers participating in a poll conducted by The Straits Times said they quit due to a heavy administrative workload, forcing them to spend more time on paperwork and organising school events than on teaching.

Long working hours (12 hours per day) was another reason for resigning, they added.

However, the resignation ratio of teachers has remained low at 3 percent and the teaching force of more than 33,000 has remained stable, said the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The top three reasons for teachers resigning were childcare, other family considerations and a desire for a new job, the ministry added.

Head of the Singaporean Government for Parliamentary Committee said the annual teaching resignations were not overly alarming, compared to other industries, but every excellent educator who leaves the sector is still one too many.

The MOE attempted to tackle the issue last August, by hiring more staff to help teachers with paperwork and increasing monthly wages from 4 to 9 percent for up to 30,000 teachers.

(Source: VNA)