Number of Teachers Trained to Teach Special Needs Students

1 Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Education (a) how many teachers are trained to teach special needs students in Crest Secondary School, Spectra Secondary School, Northlight School and Assumption Pathway School; and (b) how many allied educators are there in each of these schools to help these students in the classrooms.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Crest and Spectra Secondary Schools, Northlight School (NLS) and Assumption Pathway School (APS) tend to have more students with Special Education Needs (SEN). Their enrolment is smaller than other typical schools and they also receive a higher level of resourcing to support students, including those with SEN.

As a result, they have a better teacher to student ratio, and they use the additional funds to hire specialised manpower to support SEN students. Typically, each of them has about 10 such specialised staff who support students' additional needs. This is well above what is provided for in a typical secondary school.

All teachers in these four schools have gone through SEN awareness training and receive regular professional development in SEN knowledge and skills. About 15% of the teachers have a higher level of training, such as the Teachers Trained in Special Needs (TSN) course offered by the National Institute of Education.

Mr Speaker: Dr Intan Mokhtar.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the answers. But I did not quite catch what is the ratio of teachers who are trained in special needs education, teaching special needs students in the four specialised schools, compared to those in the mainstream schools. What are the numbers in terms of ratio?

Secondly, I must declare that I am on the board of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Governors and every year, at least once a year, the four specialised schools make a report to the Board. The recent update that we got was that out of these four schools, at least half of their last intake is made up of students who are diagnosed with special needs. That means that there is a greater demand for teachers who are trained in special needs education, on top of the other challenges that these students already face. I would like to urge the Ministry of Education (MOE) to look at giving more fundings for the schools in terms of deployment of teachers who are trained in special needs as well as funding for these schools to employ directly additional teachers or counsellors that they may need, to help such students.

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for those questions. As I mentioned earlier, all teachers in these schools have gone through SEN awareness training. So, essentially, we understand that there is a big number of students with special needs in these schools. So, all the teachers go for that training. Beyond that, we also have selected teachers where they go for higher level training, which are the TSNs. On the point about more than 50% of the student intake at ITE being SEN students, this is something we are aware of and something that we hope that we will continue to improve on.

We also do reach out to various institutions that would take in our students in the needs level. We also work with them to see how the transition process can be smooth and what we are providing them. If you look at the typical school among these four schools, usually, we have MOE-seconded teachers who would go there. These are teachers who have gone through the higher level training, the TSN training. Beyond that, the four specialised schools also would have funds to employ their own teachers and para-educators who would have the special needs training as well. These schools also carry out their own inhouse training to see where within their specialised areas that they need to improve. This will help to cater to our students. Another support that these specialised schools have is the consultancy services and access to such services with MOE psychologists. Other aspects include smaller, modular training that they require and that we hope to provide.

I wish to assure the Member Dr Intan Mokhtar that we understand the landscape and we want to make sure we give the best to these four schools. Because at the end of the day, we just want to provide the best to our children, regardless of who they are.