ENGLISH TEACHERS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS (Particulars)

Mr P. Govindaswamy asked the Minister for Education, in respect of primary schools, (a) the number, as on 1st March, 1975, of (i) vacancies for qualified English teachers in the English schools; and (ii) relief teachers employed to fill those vacancies; (b) the number, as on 1st March, 1975, of (i) vacancies for trained English teachers in the Chinese, Malay and Tamil schools; (ii) relief and untrained teachers filling those vacancies; and (iii) schools which did not have relief teachers; and (c) the total number of English teachers who resigned between 1st January, 1973 and 28th February, 1975.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Mr Ahmad Mattar) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir:

(a) (i) As at 1st March, 1975, there were 125 vacancies for English-medium teachers in English primary schools.

(a) (ii) All the 125 vacancies were filled by relief teachers. In addition, another 84 relief teachers were employed to fill casual vacancies arising from their holders being away on various forms of leave; e.g, maternity leave, study leave, etc.

(b) (i) There were 33 vacancies for English-medium primary school teachers in the Chinese stream, nine vacancies in the Malay stream, and one in the Tamil stream.

(b) (ii) All the vacancies were filled by relief teachers.

(b) (iii) The primary schools that did not have relief teachers were as follows:- (1) English schools : 35 (2) Chinese schools : 109 (3) Malay schools : 21 (4) Tamil schools : 6 All these schools had full staff complements. There are a total of 369 primary schools in Singapore.

(c) Out of a total of 6,006 English-medium primary school teachers, 301resigned from the service over the two-year period between 1st January, 1973,and 28th February, 1975.

Mr P. Govindaswamy (Anson): Sir, why did the Ministry of Education recruit so many relief teachers? Why did it not recruit trained teachers? The Ministry should train the relief teachers to enable them to fill the vacancies.

Mr Ahmad Mattar: Mr Speaker, Sir, steps are being taken by the Ministry of Education to train teachers, and this is being carried out by the Institute of Education. In the meantime, we have to get relief teachers to fill the vacancies.

Mr P. Govindaswamy: Mr Speaker, Sir, are Tamil teachers in the English stream allowed to undergo training?

Mr Ahmad Mattar: The answer is definitely yes.

Mr P. Govindaswamy: Mr Speaker, Sir, can the Parliamentary Secretary say how many Tamil teachers have undergone training?

Mr Ahmad Mattar: If the Member for Anson is interested in the figures, he can ask for them by way of a written question.