 |
IT WAS a graduation ceremony of a different sort, with National Institute of Education (NIE) honouring the latest graduating batch of graduating vice-principals.
Held on October 10th at the Four Seasons Hotel, the event saw a total of 40 vice-principals receiving their Leadership Education Programme (LEP) certificates from the Minister for Education Dr Ng Eng Hen.
The LEP is a six-month executive leadership development programme for vice-principals and officers from the Ministry Of Education (MOE) headquarters.
It is aimed at developing the participants’ leadership capability as selected graduates will then lead a number of assigned schools as principals.
The LEP aims to highlight to the school leaders developments in education in Singapore and to provide them with the resources to deal with broad leadership issues that they might encounter in a school environment.
Dean of Leadership Programmes, Associate Professor David Ng, said: “It was a good mix of formal and informal. True to the way we’ve developed their leadership competencies, they took charge and injected the informal bit by giving their own awards informally to staff and fellow participants and senior management officers in the Ministry of Education.”
This year’s valedictorian was Madam Thian Ai Ling, who received the Lee Kuan Yew Leaders in Education Programme Award which included a plaque and a $1,000 cash prize.
“I must say I was pleasantly surprised to be chosen as the valedictorian of the LEP class of 2008,” she said.
“Every one of my coursemates worked very hard and they were all outstanding as well, and hence I think everyone deserves this accolade.”
Madam Thian’s project – the iCREATE Portal at Chung Cheng High School (Main), where she was attached, was one of this year’s three featured projects.
The project involved the creation of an online portal which served as a platform for the students’ works, including podcast recordings, digital compositions and short films.
Through the portal’s comments and ratings function, students were able to share their thoughts and build on each other’s works as well as offer their suggestions for improvement.
“The teachers also felt that the portal especially the podcasting allowed for learning any time and anywhere—as students could now download the podcasts and listen and learn while they are on the go as well. Overall they felt that this mode adds value to the students learning process,” said Madam Thian.
