HIGHER SCHOOL CERTIFICATE TEACHERS (Salary increment)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Ho See Beng asked the Minister for Education whether teachers with the Higher School Certificate, whether in Government or Government-aided schools and in any of the four language streams, are given one increment more than those with the School Certificate: whether some teachers with the Higher School Certificate have not been given the additional increment, and if he will put the matter right.

Mr Ong Pang Boon: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is a scheme whereby non-graduate teachers with the Cambridge Overseas Higher School Certificate are given one additional increment if they teach in secondary schools and for so long as they teach in secondary schools. This applies to both Government and Government-aided school teachers. This scheme is confined to the English medium, because when the scheme was promulgated in July 1962, there was a dearth of graduates for the English medium secondary schools, and it was essential to encourage Primary-trained teachers with the School Certificate in this medium to take the higher qualification of the H.S.C. to enable them to teach in secondary schools.

There are no teachers in the English medium who satisfy the requirement and who have not been paid the additional increment. There are, however, teachers in the English medium with the H.S.C. teaching in Primary schools who have not been paid this increment, because the requirement is that they must teach in secondary schools.

As this scheme was originated to cope with the shortage of graduate teachers in the English medium, there are, therefore, teachers in the other media who do not qualify for the additional increment.