TEACHERS SUFFERING FROM STRESS (Comment on report)

Encik Wan Hussin bin Hj Zoohri asked the Minister for Education if he will comment on a report that more teachers are suffering from stress as a result of, amongst other things, a heavier workload in schools.

The Minister of State for Education (Dr Tay Eng Soon) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, I am replying on behalf of my Minister.

Although my Ministry does not have records to show that more teachers are suffering from stress, I agree with the Member that a teacher's job today is more demanding for two reasons. First, our children in school are better exposed and more knowledgeable than those of a generation ago and hence much more is demanded by them from the teachers. Secondly, parents, being better educated now, expect a great deal more from our teachers.

Sir, parents can help lessen the teacher's burden by spending time in guiding their children and playing a more active role in supervising their children after school. The education of a child, as we all know, depends as much on the parents as on the teachers.

Encik Wan Hussin bin Hj Zoohri: Sir, can the Minister of State assure the House that as of now the state of health of teachers is good and it is far from the poor impression given?

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I can assure the Member that the state of health of our teachers is good, if not, very good.

Dr Lau Teik Soon: Sir, will the Minister of State inform the House whether there are figures indicating the percentage of teachers who have left the service as a result of stress?

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I cannot give a breakdown of the reasons why teachers leave the teaching service. But I can tell the Member that as a whole the percentage of teachers who leave the teaching service in any one year is less than 2%.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, can the Minister say whether or not this stress could be contributed by the extra administrative work that has been put on the teachers? I hear that the teachers these days have to record their lessons and they have to do all kinds of things in addition to their work load.

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I think teachers a generation ago had as much administrative work to do as they do today. Perhaps they even had more to do. I remember there were teachers in the rural schools who had to make sure that chickens did not come into the classroom and do a lot of things of that kind. So I do not that it is any more today than it was a generation ago.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, I can speak from experience. I was a teacher for about 10 years in Singapore and I hardly did any administrative work, if I could remember. I only concentrated on teaching and extra- curricular activities. How can you say that former teachers had to do greater administrative work?

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is a certain amount of administrative work that every teacher must do, eg, keeping class registers, collecting school fees from pupils of the class at the beginning of every month. But a lot of the administrative work, such as compiling examination grades and working out the percentages these days, is being done by computers as we are providing schools with microcomputers and links with the central computer of the Ministry.