SINGAPORE: Teachers' unions in Singapore send 60 cases to the Ministry of Education MOE each year, with issues ranging from perceived unfairness in appraisal to posting matters.
Besides these individual cases, unions also send inquiries from members to seek clarification on general HR policies. The Education Ministry has actively engaged the four teachers' unions that are affiliated with the National Trades Union Congress NTUC - the Singapore Teachers Union, the Singapore Chinese Teachers Union, the Singapore Malay Teachers Union and the Singapore Tamil Teachers Union.
This allows for the mutual sharing of staff-related issues and for unions to provide feedback on staff policies to MOE.
MOE follows up on all cases referred from the unions, and then closes the loop with the individual member as well as the union, said MOE in its response.
At the September sitting of Parliament, Mr. Abdul Samad, who is the vice-president of the NTUC, had said in an adjournment motion that teachers' unions receive more than 1,000 cases of grievances each year.
These cases range from managing students behaviour, abuse from parents, and issues relating to mental health or career progression.