MOE's Payment of Housing Allowances to Officers

Mr Png Eng Huat asked the Minister for Education in light of the Report of the Auditor-General for FY2013/14 where $2.16 million in housing allowances are paid by the Ministry to its officers for the period April 2012 to December 2013 (a) who are the beneficiaries of the allowances; (b) what is the breakdown of the beneficiaries by nationality; and (c) what are the qualifying criteria for such allowances.

Mr Heng Swee Keat: Housing allowances are paid only to foreign teachers on Foreign Specialist Contracts. Foreign specialist contracts are offered to experienced foreign teachers who make up for shortages in unique expertise and add significant value to our programmes. They teach subjects, such as the Humanities, Art and Music and foreign languages. They come from a range of countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Japan.

MOE is very selective about the offering of such contracts. There was an average of about 46 such teachers during the period April 2012 to December 2013 but, over the years, we have been judicious in offering remuneration packages with housing allowances to foreign teachers. As such, these numbers are reducing. Currently, there are 31 such teachers employed by the Ministry.