Professor Liu Woon Chia, NIE Director,
Distinguished Guests,
Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening.
1. It is my pleasure to join you this evening at the Leaders in Education Programme (LEP) graduation ceremony. I'm delighted to be here, to be amongst top leaders from our schools. My heartiest congratulations to the 34 graduands, which includes our 3 friends from the Ministry of Education of Brunei.
2. The LEP is a seven-month full-time programme that prepares selected school leaders for leadership roles both in schools and at MOE headquarters. I trust that the programme would have exposed you to different views and perspectives on educational leadership.
3. Beyond your learning, I am sure that you have formed strong bonds with one another over these few months; and these connections, you will carry with you beyond the LEP. In your engagement with one another, you would have sharpened your leadership skills, enhanced your knowledge bases, and developed more critical mindsets. Today we celebrate this milestone as you embark on the next phase of your leadership journey.
School Leadership in the Changing Education Landscape
4. School leaders are the foundation of the educational fraternity, as you support the actualisation of a collective vision and hopes for education, which has been the cornerstone of our children's and our nation's progress.
5. There is strong recognition, both in Singapore and globally, of the increasing importance of growing our leaders and developing leadership that embodies values and skills that we want to see in our people. Embodied leadership calls for you to be fully present, leveraging your interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, as well as physical and contextual awareness, to positively influence your school staff and community. Like how some of you shared in your post Creative Action Project reflection: "we have to feel the school, learn the culture, navigate without positional leadership to achieve what we believe is helpful to the school."
6. What are leaders in education called to do? At the core of your mission is the call to nurture the hearts, minds, and spirit of our children so that they might find meaning, purpose, a sense of connectedness and be willing to serve with their gifts and talents. Today, we need visionary leaders who are passionate and committed to act, not just effectively, but with courage, wisdom and empathy as our schools and society become increasingly diverse and complex constructs.
7. We must realise, too, that we are not alone in this enterprise. As we lead, do so with authenticity, build meaningful relationships with our teaching fraternity, students, parents, and the larger community. We must harness their energies to create ways for all students to be seen, heard, valued and supported to become fully competent, and contributing members of our society.
8. In current times, as schools face multifaceted challenges, the vision of a school leader is even more critical. The choices you make in deciding on the priorities for your unique school context, student profile, and staff needs, and how best to engage your various stakeholders, will matter.
9. A key stakeholder group are our parents. As we have all experienced, parents have become increasingly involved in their children's education. While this opens up more opportunities for closer school-home partnerships, it also calls on our wisdom to partner and educate parents on how they should engage teachers and schools.
10. As school leaders, you have the chance to leverage this collaboration, to guide parents towards a shared understanding of our education system's broader goals. Your leadership will be key in building bridges, fostering meaningful dialogues, and creating collaborative environments where teachers, parents, and the community can work together for the benefit of our students.
11. By skilfully navigating these relationships, you can create a supportive ecosystem that not only enhances student learning but also empowers teachers. Your teachers will support you and your shared vision for the school if they know and trust that you have their wellbeing at heart too, so remember to care for your teachers as you seek partnerships with your stakeholders.
12. During this protected 7-months away from schools, the LEP has provided you with the space to delve deep and discuss the issues and tensions that confront us. It has also provided opportunities for you to engage in critical dialogue with your peers and with the education fraternity within and beyond NIE. These experiences will stand you in good stead as you now translate your learning into action. You are empowered to develop a positive and inclusive culture in schools that promotes learning and growth for both our students and teachers.
Learning in the LEP Sandbox: International Visit and Mentoring
13. The LEP includes a two-week international study visit, and you explored Canada, Denmark, Germany and Portugal in May and June. Through these visits, I am sure you would have visited schools, vocational institutes, companies, community organisations, and ministries. You were able to broaden your international perspectives, examine the connections of education as part of larger interconnected systems, and engage in discourse on leadership-related issues common or distinct across these countries and Singapore.
14. These trips would have inspired you to look at partnerships, uplifting learners, student agency, citizenship and lifelong learning among other important ideas. We currently have some of what you have seen overseas in our Singapore schools and classrooms. While we have a robust education system in Singapore, your travels, I am sure, has unearthed new perspectives and ideas that we can seriously consider for our system in the future.
15. These insights are particularly valuable as we strive to provide learning experiences to prepare our students for the realities of adult life, including a competitive environment and various economic and social challenges. As school leaders, you will need to harness your creativity to inspire your teachers in delivering these crucial learning experiences, draw on both our local strengths and the innovative approaches you have gleaned from abroad. Your teachers will look to you for inspiration and support, be that figure for them in the school.
16. I hope that you have used these LEP experiences as a sandbox where you can safely explore, learn, and develop your leadership capabilities. I believe you will be able to bring what you have learnt from your international visits, these paradigms and conceptualisations of what constitutes education for the future, into a personalised, broadened vision for your schools and education in Singapore. I look forward to seeing how these new ways of education emerge in our discourse in Singapore.
17. The LEP also includes individual mentoring of participants by seasoned mentor principals, many of whom are with you this evening to celebrate your graduation. The sharing of values and insights by experienced school leaders with aspiring leaders is critical because we are always stronger together. As schools are given more autonomy to make decisions in complex situations, I urge you to continue to leverage these connections and networks that you have established with one another to find ways to do things better and better.
18. I hope the mentoring has been a mutually beneficial relationship of learning and dialogue. I would like to thank the principal mentors for mentoring the new school leaders, as well as the NIE faculty for helping them to make sense of the valuable link between theory and practice.
19. MOE's mission is to mould the future of our nation. You and I are on this mission of nation-building ‒ what we do and how we do it will be our legacy to future generations.
20. Thus, I would like to urge you, our school leaders graduating today, to build on the values and experiences gained in the LEP. Use these to ground yourselves and to live authentically, with courage and wisdom to make a difference. Hold on to your LEP friends and form a strong community together. Together as one, your contributions and dedication will be critical in preparing the next generation of Singaporeans for both the opportunities and challenges of the future.
Conclusion
21. Once again, my heartiest congratulations to you on completing the LEP Programme. I wish you all a wonderful and enjoyable evening together and many successes in your next milestone and journey ahead.
22. Thank you.