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SINGAPORE: An Academy of Singapore Teachers has been set up to build a teacher-led culture of professional excellence.
The Education Ministry (MOE) said the Academy would raise the level of professional practice in the classroom and expertise across the system.
"The main aim is to come up with best practices to share with younger (teaching) colleagues and among themselves, pedagogies and classroom teaching methodologies that have worked. We feel that practitioner-based learning - learning from each other through collaboration - is going to be a very powerful way of learning in the future," said Manogaran Suppiah, executive director of the Academy of Singapore Teachers.
Simply put, it's teachers leading fellow teachers.
"There are lots of tacit knowledge that's within me. The teacher's academy will be a platform for me to share these experiences, particularly with teachers joining into the fraternity... they don't have to start from ground zero," said Mohana Eswaran, head of Department of Mathematics at Regent Secondary School.
It will also promote a culture of care and support for teachers' well-being.
Samuel Lim, a Physical Education and History teacher at Swiss Cottage Secondary School said: "We've got new ideas but we're not sure if they will work, or there are things we want to try. So I think the experienced teachers provide a sounding board in discussing these ideas with us, and to give their insights.
"No matter how much you've read or studied, nothing beats 20 to 30 years of experience, and that's really a gold mine."
And this entire treasure trove of resources will be theirs to use.
The academy currently resides at Grange Road, and will be relocated to the former St Andrew's Junior College at Malan Road in 2011, before eventually settling in its new building, next to the existing MOE headquarters in five to six years' time.
The Academy of Singapore Teachers comes under the Goh Keng Swee Centre of Education, which will also house specialist academies such as the English Language Institute of Singapore (ELIS), Physical Education & Sports Teacher Academy (PESTA) and Singapore Teachers' Academy for the Arts (STAR).
The academy will be governed and guided by a Teachers' Council, chaired by Director-General of Education, Ho Peng.
It will comprise of leaders and professional experts from the teaching profession, as well as draw on teachers across generations to provide their input.
-CNA/wk/ls
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