THE call to teach was so irresistible that Mr Vincent Lim did not mind taking a $4,000 pay cut to make the switch from corporate banking to teaching eight years ago.

It was not an easy decision to make, especially as he was already a father of one at that time, he told The Straits Times. But, Mr Lim - now 35 and a head of department at Admiralty Secondary School - said he wanted to help mould the young.

To recognise mid-career teachers like Mr Lim and help them 'catch up' with their peers who chose teaching as their first job, the Education Ministry (MOE) will enhance their pay and promotion tracks from next year.

The Ministry is paying attention to mid-career teachers because it wants to recuit more such individuals to 'add diversity' to the teaching profession, said Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Education Ministry's Work Plan Seminar on Tuesday.

So, from next year, mid-career teachers will have faster promotions and extra salary increments to help them catch up with other teachers:

Graduates who have at least three years' working experience and who join the teaching service can start one rung up in the teaching scale. This means a few hundred dollars more a month in starting salaries.

Up to 80 per cent of their non-teaching work experience will also be taken into account when computing their starting pay, compared to 50 per cent now.

This means that those who are starting their at mid-career should catch up with their peers by their fourth year.

Existing mid-career teachers are not left out - there are also pay scale and higher promotion increments to help them catch up in four to six years.

Currently, mid-career teachers, or those with at least a year of work experience, make up 6,600, or about 22 per cent of the teaching force.

This compared to just 15 per cent five years ago.

On average, 680 mid-career executives join teaching each year.

Mr Tharman also noted that many of them have done well.

Besides looking at those who decide to make the switch to teaching, the Education Ministry is also reviewing the pay of all teachers, said the Minister, adding that the move was necessary to ensure that teaching remained a career of choice.