MOE Going to Pay Their Outsourced Instructors in Advance & Even Extend Contract Even When Activities Are Suspended

Before COVID-19, I could afford to buy fish from Cai Png stalls, but now, I’m settling for frozen peas, eggs and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This is me, and probably a lot of people in this period:

GIF: Giphy.com

Outsourced instructors for schools AKA your CCA coaches, instructors etc? That very specific group of people are in the same spot. Frozen peas, eggs and rice.

Because of precautionary measures, those Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) and extra activities you see in schools were suspended. Since the instructors’ income are paid based on services, no activities mean no money lah.

If you’re in this group and having nightmares about frozen peas and rice for months, fear not: You can add chickens back to your diet.

But not fishes yet.

Cause MOE and National Instructors and Coaches Association (NICA) gotcha back.

Contracts Can Be Extended By Up to a Year

Depending on your contract hours or scope, the current contract can be extended up to December 2021. This not only gives you more time to fulfil the services, it also means more work = more income.

Image: Giphy

And in the rest of 2020, schools will be finding other ways to deliver those CCA. If the activities resume and the requirements exceed the contract hours, don’t worry. The schools will pay the additional hours.

That’s in 2021, so you’re probably still counting how many days of frozen peas and rice you need to endure while encouraging yourself “you can do this! Peas are delicious! One serving of peas contains as much vitamin C as two large apples!”

What if I told you: you don’t have to wait long.

Initial Payment for Contract

That’s right. For both individuals and companies, you can now get initial payments applicable to CCA and non-CCA contracts.

The initial payment is 40% of the annual contract value, capped at S$3,000 per instructor. They will be paid in two tranches: in June 2020 and November 2020.

Follow us on Telegram for more informative & easy-to-read articles, or download the Goody Feed app for articles you can’t find on Facebook!

Non-CCA instructors are on an ad-hoc basis or short-term periods, so they will be paid a single time in June 2020.

As for company contracts with multiple instructors, the cap will be adjusted based on the number of instructors and annual contract value.

Here’s a curious sentence in the MOE press release: “Companies are encouraged to pass on the initial payment to their instructors, as per their existing arrangements with them.”

That “encouraged” is a very interesting word, indeed.

Sweating small goon instructor: Uh, harlow MOE? Doesn’t this mean the company can opt not to pay me first?

I don’t know lah. Maybe try vigorously shaking your head while showing the company a heavy look of disapproval if they don’t pass on the early payments to you.

Image: Giphy

So Who Is Eligible?

The above solution is done by restructuring the contract, and will be offered to services still relevant to the schools for the extended contract duration of up to December 2021. This means it doesn’t apply to contracts that can still proceed within the current conditions, like the Arts & Music Instructor Scheme (AMIS).

Schools will get in touch with the eligible companies and instructors with more information from 25 May 2020 onwards (before the school holiday).

If you have any questions hit MOE up, or contact your respective schools after 25 May 2020, or visit https://www.moe.gov.sg/coaches-instructors.

How nice of them, while here in Goody Feed, we have to pay our boss just so that we can keep our jobs.

Same human being no same life.

To stay in the loop about news in Singapore, you might want to subscribe to our YouTube channel whereby we’d update you about what’s happening here daily: