SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOLS

SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOLS:

(Teachers and therapists): The following Question stood in the name of Mr Chiam See Tong -

6. To ask the Minister for Education (a) whether there are sufficient teachers and therapists for special needs schools; (b) whether his Ministry will improve the benefits of teachers in special needs schools to the equivalent of teachers in mainstream schools in order to attract more people into special needs education; (c) what are the career advancement opportunities for Special Needs Officers employed under his Ministry; and (d) what is the rationale for not having degree level courses for special needs education despite its importance.

Dr Teo Ho Pin (Bukit Panjang): Question No. 6, Sir.

The Minister of State for Education (Mr Gan Kim Yong) (for the Minister for Education): Sir, MOE and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) are committed to funding and supporting the Special Education (SPED) schools in delivering the full suite of education and other services to meet the needs of children with special needs. The 21 SPED schools recruit teachers, therapists and other staff according to their need.

As at 8th January 2008, there were some 700 teachers in the 21 SPED schools and 18 vacant teaching positions temporarily filled by relief teachers. The SPED schools are currently recruiting candidates to fill the vacancies. With regard to therapists, there were a total of 45 therapists which comprised 21 occupational therapists, 11 physio

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therapists and 13 speech therapists. For SPED schools which need additional support services for their students, they could engage therapy services from the Therapy Hubs set up by NCSS. Currently, four SPED schools are using such services from the Therapy Hubs.

The Ministry of Education and the National Council of Social Service help uplift the quality and image of the sector through the provision of additional funding and greater professional development opportunities as well as recognition for outstanding SPED teachers. These include a training vote for customised training to meet the teacher's individual professional needs. In addition, teachers can also apply for work attachment opportunities to broaden their exposure beyond their school experience, just like teachers in the mainstream schools. Other professional development opportunities include leadership training programmes for principals and middle management staff and specialised training for teachers teaching children with autism. To boost the professionalism of SPED educators and provide recognition for outstanding SPED teachers, the MOE-NCSS SPED Teacher Award has been implemented and the inaugural award presentation was held in November 2007.

NCSS reviews the pay packages of SPED teachers regularly to ensure they are equitably compensated. SPED teachers' salaries were revised as recently as April 2007. NCSS will continue to explore ways to make teaching in SPED schools a rewarding and fulfilling career.

Special Needs Officers (SNOs) are deployed to mainstream schools to assist teachers in providing support to students with mild to moderate special education needs. The SNOs provide different forms of support which include in-class support, support outside the classroom, specialised remediation, specialised training in lifeskills and the implementation of Individual

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Education Plans for the students. They may progress to be a Senior SNO as they gain more experience and skills to provide increasing levels of support needed for pupils with more complex learning difficulties. The Senior SNOs will provide guidance and professional supervision for junior SNOs and assist school personnel in developing resources and systems to better support pupils with special needs. Some SNOs may choose to advance their careers in the SPED school sector.

Candidates applying to be teachers in the SPED schools must meet the minimum requirement of 'A' levels, which is the criterion for entry to the NIE pre-service teacher training course, the Diploma in Special Education. Whilst 'A' levels is the minimum academic qualification to be a SPED teacher, SPED schools have been able to attract candidates with higher academic qualifications. Of the 700 SPED teachers currently in the SPED schools, 325 have degrees, ranging from Bachelor to Masters degrees. Therefore, graduate teachers form 47% of the total number of teachers in the SPED schools.

Dr Teo Ho Pin: Sir, may I ask the Minister of State what is the student-teacher ratio for special needs schools?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: The student-teacher ratio differs from school to school. It ranges from eight for some autism schools to 13 or 14, depending on the different types of schools.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): Sir, besides providing funding for the Special Education schools, would MOE: (1) consider playing a more active role, eg, rolling out a tiered quality assurance framework, so that there is quality education for the kids; (2) deploy HQ staff to the ground to help install these systems; (3) conduct some due diligence of the starters of these schools, eg, making sure that curriculum and trained teachers are in place before the schools

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are started; and (4) consider a 360-degree feedback regularly to ensure that quality is assured in the course of providing the education?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Sir, I would like to thank the Member for the suggestions. Indeed, we are working very closely with the Special Education schools on the ground, and our staff have formed special task forces to work with selected Special Education schools to help them put in place stronger governance systems as well as to help them develop curriculum appropriate for the students, especially those who are pursuing mainstream education curriculum. We are also looking at ways to upgrade the quality and qualification of the Special Education teachers. NIE is providing training for some of the teachers from the Special Education schools as well. Certainly, we will also look at ways to enhance the feedback system from Special Education schools and work towards helping them to improve their quality.

Mr Speaker: Mdm Ho, one last question.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: I would like to ask the Minister of State what has been the experience of MOE in attracting and retaining the SPED teachers.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Sir, as I mentioned, we have been able to fill most of the vacancies in the Special Education schools. There are still some vacancies and we are recruiting appropriate teachers. At the same time, we also provide training and upgrading for the Special Education teachers as well as to look at seconding our mainstream teachers to the Special Education schools to provide additional input and professionalism, and to provide support for the Special Education schools. We are at the same time looking at opportunities

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for Special Education teachers to be attached to our mainstream schools to expose them to mainstream curriculum as well as the systems that we have in mainstream schools. I think these exchanges will also help to make Special Education a more attractive and sustainable career. We are working towards improving the career for the Special Education teachers.