How does Singapore develop its teachers?

In this video, Prof. Fan introduces CPD in Singapore.

Singapore has a rigorous teacher preparation and professional development system. All Singapore school teachers are expected to complete their pre-service training programme at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University.

After starting their careers in school, all in-service teachers in Singapore have access to comprehensive and systematic in-service training and professional development activities at different levels, including NIE, MOE (including Academy of Singapore Teachers), School Zones, Schools Clusters, and individual schools.

In-service training has received increasing attention over the last decade in Singapore. Under the new CPD policies, school teachers can apply for professional development leave of 10 weeks after working for 12 years, paid full salary since 2006. Moreover, every teacher is entitled to 100 hours of in-service training each year since the late 1990s. In addition, many schools have reserved 1 hour fixed time each week for CPD. NIE has developed a large variety of in-service training courses for school teachers since 2000, including teaching of different topics, action research, alternative assessment, using ICT in mathematics teaching and learning. It has also offered Master degree programmes for in-service school teachers. There is also clear career path for teachers in Singapore schools.