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SINGAPORE: The Education Ministry plans to grow its teaching force by 10 per cent to 33,000 teachers by 2015.
The ministry recognises that teachers are key to the quality of education and it will recruit 2,000 more physical education and aesthetics teachers over the next 10 years.
Dr Ng Eng Hen, Education Minister and Second Minister for Defence, said: "We want to increase the workforce, the teaching workforce, because there are clear educational needs. That's understandable. But we are not going to sacrifice quality to get the numbers."
Dr Ng also said his ministry wants to attract good people into the teaching profession and so a key strategy is to provide more opportunities for professional development and this is why the ministry is setting up new teacher academies.
The academies include Academy of Singapore Teachers, Physical Education & Sports Teacher Academy, Singapore Teachers' Academy for the Arts and English Language Institute of Singapore.
Dr Ng said while remuneration will always be important, the ministry has observed that many Singaporeans look beyond pay, for job satisfaction and the ministry will take this into consideration in enhancing professional development.
Dr Ng also said he prefers to keep the teaching workforce mainly Singaporeans.
"There are educational reasons for that because as Prime Minister says, part of the educational outcome is to create a Singaporean identity, and it's something that only Singaporeans can do well," he said.
MOE is also planning to build more infrastructure to support learning.
For a start, it plans to spend around S$4.8 million on each primary school to enable them to provide holistic education.
Some schools have already made improvements to their infrastructure.
At Park View Primary School, the library was recently reconfigured with stage lighting, a professional audio system and movable shelves to accommodate speech and drama class and activities in performing arts.
Over at Pasir Ris Primary School, classrooms are now equipped with netbooks and audiobooks. The school also has a synthetic turf field where physical education classes can take place in Indoor Sports Halls even if it rains.
The Education Ministry hopes to implement such facilities at all primary schools over the next few years. - CNA/fa
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