Special education schools looking to attract, retain teachers amid growing demand

hello again time for your business news Manpower challenges continue to weigh on Singapore's special education sector but with more schools opening up in the next few years the pressure is not just on retaining teachers but also to attract and train new ones as nikil Kata finds out when it comes to meeting the needs of special education students key ingredients include having the right heart and the right mind whether it's dealing with intellectual disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder every

child is different and that needs to differ uh especially children with uh ASD autism uh they may be sensitive to sound they may be sensitive to light uh it takes a keen observation and analytical skills to be able to detect the the needs of the children and whe whether what causes them to be anxious I think this is something that uh what we hope to see in good teachers and to find such a teacher with the right heart with the right mind uh is one of the challenges uh for my school part of the ch

allenge here is in providing teachers what they need to do the job properly M's fernville Garden School says to give the students a leg up teachers also have to skill up as teaching methods evolve whether it's the move towards using online videos or simulating crisis scenario iOS I think one of the the challenges that they have is uh the need for for more training and I think this will take time uh because we we are still developing the resources to help them equip the teachers with the knowhow

uh and the structures and the processes in order to support them in terms of delivering of the lessons delivering better curriculum the pressure is on the education Ministry plans to open three more sped schools over the current 25 within 6 years and IT projects that the SP teaching fraternity will need another 350 teachers by then it's a tall order given how difficult it already is to find and retain Educators in this specialized field sped teachers CNA spoke with say uncertain career prospects

and low pay are holding them back from working in the sector for employers the tight labor market and higher cost of living make it even harder to retain talent and train new ones I think the the uh one of the chief considerations that we have within the sector is that because our teachers need to be trained uh especially for the job a high turnover rate is a concern for the sector because it affects uh the extent to which we are able to deploy teachers to support our students that's where indu

stry players can help says SG enable the government agency for disability while the Educators work with the students uh on building up their vocational skills or their life skills that can contribute to their employ uh to their future employment what we want to do as CH enable is ready to bring in the uh the industrial expertise what is going on in the industry into the education system the school environment such that the educational programs or curriculum are aligned with the current market de

mand as of 20123 there were around 7,100 students enrolled across the 25 sped schools here