Teachers Seeking Counselling Services in Past Five Years
Ministry of EducationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns MP Louis Ng Kok Kwang's inquiry into the number of teachers using Ministry of Education (MOE) in-house counselling and the whole-of-Government hotline over the past five years. Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing reported that in-house counselling cases averaged 40 annually from 2017-2019 before rising to 70, while 90 staff used the government hotline since March 2021. To address pandemic-related stress, MOE has re-prioritised school programmes and launched the Wellness Ambassadors initiative in September 2021 to provide peer support and training. Teachers can also access the Mindline at Work online platform for tailored well-being resources and attend dedicated workshops and sharing sessions offered by the Ministry. These systemic adjustments and support channels are designed to pace teacher workloads and enhance the overall mental well-being of the education workforce.
Transcript
43 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Education for each year in the past five years, how many teachers have sought counselling services broken down by (i) the Ministry’s in-house counselling services and (ii) whole-of-Government’s counselling hotline, respectively.
Mr Chan Chun Sing: The well-being of our teaching staff is of paramount importance to MOE. We provide a range of resources to support their well-being, including professional development courses, avenues for peer support, and free counselling services which are available to all staff when needed.
The number of teachers in schools seeking support through MOE’s in-house counselling services averaged about 40 per year from 2017 to 2019, before COVID-19. This average number has risen to about 70 in the last two years. As an additional channel of support, the whole-of-Government counselling hotline was rolled out in March 2021, with about 90 MOE staff using the hotline last year across both MOE schools and HQ.
MOE recognises the exceptional demands that COVID-19 has placed on the entire education system, and our teachers, in particular, have to shoulder many more duties to keep the school safe while still ensuring learning continues for our students. MOE has, therefore, made adjustments both at system-level and school-level to re-prioritise initiatives and school programmes to pace out work for the teachers to better support them.
To enhance the support for the mental well-being of teachers, MOE introduced a new initiative on Wellness Ambassadors in September 2021. Nominated staff receive training to provide basic peer support and encourage their peers to seek help where necessary. Teachers can also access Mindline at Work, an online platform which provides self-care and well-being tips and resources, tailored to meet the needs of individual users. Teachers can also attend sharing sessions and workshops on teachers’ well-being offered by MOE.