Experience in the classroom

ONE OF the myths about teaching is that it's an easy job. After all, don't teachers get long vacations and have short work days? The truth is, teachers put in far longer hours than is readily apparent. There are lesson plans to prepare, exams to grade and extra-curricular activities to supervise. All of that before actual classroom

time is considered. While there is no doubt of the satisfaction to be had from seeing young charges do well, teaching is as challenging a profession as any. It is right, then, that the Government has repeatedly sought fresh ways to reward this dedication. Now, new measures again are being directed at the profession. This time, initiatives are meant to recognise the value of experience and the importance of absorbing fresh ideas from outside the formal professional structure.

Certainly, financial incentives remain key. But it is important to note how they are being structured. Soon, teachers who stay in the profession for 40 years before retirement can expect their gratuities to rise to as much as $160,000. Just as important, the Government is investigating how salaries of mid-career entrants to teaching can be raised more quickly to match those of their new colleagues. Such new teachers - who are likely to take a cut in pay changing careers - bring a wealth of experience in a variety of disciplines that can only help cross-pollinate ideas in the common room. They deserve to be encouraged. Meanwhile, changes to rules on sabbaticals should prompt more teachers to test new grounds for fresh insights to bring into the classroom - and lessen the danger of burnout. Indeed, these three measures alone should go far in both retaining and recruiting deep and broad experience that can only benefit a profession that now includes many young faces. For after much success with conventional recruitment, a third of Singapore's 28,500 school teachers are aged 30 or younger. Like everyone else, young teachers need mentoring, too.