SCREENING CRITERIA FOR TRAINEE TEACHERS AND TEACHING SCHOLARSHIPS

SCREENING CRITERIA FOR TRAINEE TEACHERS AND TEACHING SCHOLARSHIPS: 12.

Er Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Education besides academic achievements (a) what are the other criteria used in the selection of students for the award of Government scholarships; and (b) whether the Ministry also looks into the candidates' conduct, psychological make-up and disciplinary track record in school.

13.

Ms Audrey Wong Wai Yen asked the Minister for Education in the light of

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the recent criminal cases against trainee teachers (a) what are the current screening criteria for those applying to be trained as teachers and those applying for teaching scholarships; and (b) whether these criteria and screening procedures will be reviewed.

The Minister for Education (Dr Ng Eng Hen): Mr Speaker, can I have your permission to take the two questions together?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Dr Ng Eng Hen: MOE takes a holistic view when selecting teachers and teaching scholars. Apart from academic qualifications, shortlisted candidates are required to undergo an interview process. During this interview process, the panel will assess the candidate's overall abilities, his aptitude, character, and the passion to teach and develop students under their charge.

For applicants for a teaching position, the panel is chaired by a school leader, typically a school principal. That assessment panel has access to the applicants' transcripts, CCA records, school testimonials, work references and details of their employment history, where available.

Similarly, shortlisted candidates for the Teaching Scholarship will be interviewed by a panel comprising senior management and education officers. The interview selection panel looks at candidates' CCA records, school testimonials, personal essay, psychometric assessment and National Service records for insights into their conduct, character and values. The panel also assesses the candidates' leadership potential.

Candidates selected for an overseas scholarship undergo an additional interview conducted by trained

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psychologists to assess their leadership style, interpersonal social behaviours, character and values, thinking, communication style, and the ability to adjust to overseas living because some of them will be sent overseas for their studies. This psychological report is an additional input to the deliberations of the interview selection panel.

Our panel members are experienced and are generally able to interpret and identify information gaps from various documents for clarification with the candidates given their experience within and outside of the Education Service. Any concerns of panel members can constitute a veto even when the so-called candidate meets the requirements. When they are unsure about the candidate's integrity, they will discuss the various issues and reach a decision.

MOE screens all candidates selected for teaching positions and scholarships against police records before appointing or awarding them. Where relevant, checks are also made with the candidate’s previous employers or school. So, we have a fairly robust system but, obviously, our screening procedures cannot weed out all unsuitable candidates. Moving forward, as we learn from isolated instances, MOE will tighten selection processes where potential scholars are concerned. Arising from the previous case, MOE will specifically ask the candidate's school to provide more information which may affect their suitability as teachers. In other words, a directed question.

Ms Audrey Wong Wai Yen (Nominated Member): Thank you, Minister, for the very detailed answer. I have one supplementary question: how does the Ministry monitor the progress of its teaching scholars.

Dr Ng Eng Hen: Scholars do return during their undergraduate study. For

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example, some of them are asked to come back for three to four weeks during their breaks if they are scheduled for any development programmes. There are requirements where they are asked to inform should, for instance, they are picked up by police or where there is a charge pending. There are some of the instances that we require of them to inform us before they are accepted on scholarship. In that particular instance, the scholar chose not do. Arising from this incident, we recognise that there are processes that could be tightened to allow us to better monitor our scholars not only in terms of their academic progression in the university course but as well as these related aspects. So, we are looking into these processes.

Er Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio): **** Sir, I would like to ask the Minister, moving forward, whether the Ministry will ask the schools that the scholarship applicants attended to declare or to write a report on all previous cases of misconduct, despite these being non-police cases.

Dr Ng Eng Hen: **** Mr Speaker, I take the Member's comment in the general direction that we want to weed out and we want to be aware of instances which would affect the selection of that person as a teacher. That is the overall aspect. At the same time, I think we would have to give the schools the judgement when they write the testimonials: do we want them to write every misdemeanour? When do you think that someone has learned a lesson as a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old or a 14-year-old and to be put on record? There is a certain element of judgement that we want to give to teachers and their principals.

Arising from this particular case, rather than give the school a blanket rule that "thou shall record all misdemeanours in scripts" which will then affect his

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application for a variety of positions and not necessarily just teaching, I think it is better for MOE to write to the school to ask them, "Is there anything in the course of his time in the school that you think will not make him suitable as a teacher?" I think that may be the better lesson learned here. So, that is what we have decided.

In general, I think our selection processes are robust enough. Obviously, we do not have a fool-proof system. A candidate can undergo psychologists' interviews and it would still not be possible for them to pick up that the candidate may not be suitable to be a teacher. We will strengthen and tighten our processes along the way.