Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Education what is the current pupil-teacher ratio for (i) Primary and (ii) Secondary levels for examinable subjects, such as the languages, mathematics and science, and non-examinable or elective subjects, such as physical education, social studies and art/music respectively.
Mr Chan Chun Sing: MOE adopts the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) definition of the student-teacher ratio (or pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in our context) which is calculated by dividing the total student enrolment by the total number of teachers at a given level of education.
Our PTR has improved over the last decade, from 19 in 2011 to 15 in 2021 at the Primary level, and from 15 to 12 at the Secondary level. Our PTRs are comparable to OECD averages and countries, such as Japan, Switzerland and Germany.
PTR is a measure of the overall investment and allocation of teacher resources in an education system. It is neither feasible nor meaningful to calculate the PTR by different subjects, as many teachers teach more than one subject. More importantly, we regard both examinable and non-examinable subjects as important elements of a broad-based holistic education.
Ministry of Education
4 October 2022
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/sprs3topic?reportid=written-answer-11662
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 