Singapore Government Media Release
Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts,
140 Hill Street #02-02 MITA Building, Singapore 179369.
Tel: 837 9666

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NIE Council Members, distinguished guests, principals, graduands, ladies and gentlemen.

My warmest congratulations to the graduands for successfully completing the Diploma in Educational Administration programme. This graduation dinner is the second such event organised by NIE specially for DEA graduands. I am delighted to be present this evening to share this special occasion with you.

The DEA programme plays a critical role in preparing Singapore�s future leaders in education. From this programme will come our future principals, cluster superintendents, and architects of Singapore�s education system.

Programmes such as this, which seek to develop leadership in a systematic way, will become increasingly important. Today�s leaders face a far more complex challenge than their predecessors. Over the last decade, leadership roles and responsibilities have undergone a fundamental shift in an operating environment characterised by change and new challenges.

For much of the twentieth century, managers had a threefold job: to set strategy, design a management structure and install effective controls. These were the qualities that successful organisations, and hence successful managers required in the industrial age. These systems shaped behaviour and resulted in organisations that produced stability, consistency and predictability.

Today, strategies, structures and controls are not enough. Leadership is no longer about issuing instructions but about releasing and mobilising other people�s energies. The new leader focuses less on making behaviour predictable and consistent, and more on developing the initiative and supporting the ideas of his people. The role of the leader becomes essentially to create an environment for innovation, ideas and progress. The leader is out front, not pulling followers by some imagined chain, but rather preparing the ground, and clearing the path.

At the same time, leaders must give their organisation a common purpose and culture. They have to develop a compelling and forceful vision for their organisations that others can share and rally around. They are expected to offer a view of the future that is clearly and demonstrably better, give meaning to the changes expected of people, create pride, energy and a sense of accomplishment.

So how does one develop these skills to be a successful leader? Can we actually learn to lead? The answer is a qualified yes. We can learn techniques and skills. We can master the theories, strategies and tactics of leadership that are taught in courses and seminars. However, the intuition, instinct, the passion that makes leaders are not as easily honed and developed. Only the best leadership programmes succeed in enhancing these qualities.

Successful leadership programmes are those that go beyond training and the development of skills and techniques. They discover and build on participants� unique experiences and strengths, to provide an education that leads to the understanding and conviction fundamental to effective leadership.

The DEA programme has given you such an education in leadership. It has honed your leadership abilities and will make you better leaders. To ensure that the programme continues to offer an education of the highest standard, improvements are continually being made to enhance the teaching and learning experiences so they keep pace with the increasing demands on leadership. This is especially important as expectations on school leaders continue to go up as we devolve more decision making to schools.

From this year onwards, the DEA programme will be improved. It will be renamed the Leaders in Education Programme (LEP). Enhancements have been introduced to make the programme more Responsive, Relevant, and Rigorous.

The LEP is a response to the changing demands of leadership I highlighted. In our context, increasing school autonomy, greater accountability and higher levels of achievement require innovative and independent school leaders able to handle more challenging and complex roles.

The LEP will therefore be more executive in nature, preparing principals to be the chief executives of their schools. There will be more exposure to the chief executive�s role in contexts other than those they are familiar with. Participants will find themselves learning from experiences in both education and industry. For example, we intend to bring in people from industry to discuss organisational leadership issues, and we shall be sending participants for short industrial attachments to observe how the role is manifested in industrial settings. This is not for them to copy what goes on in the business world, but to generate greater understanding, leading to improved and more informed practice as school CEOs. To balance this, participants will also be exposed to the views of effective principals and senior people from HQ about institutional leadership.

Future principals must be innovators as well, pioneering improvements in administration and educational practice. They must learn how to inspire and draw out the best in both individuals and teams, and instil a culture of innovation and risk taking, so that schools become incubators and communities of good ideas and practice. The theme of innovation will run throughout the programme, so participants can learn to create cultures that encourage entrepreneurship at the frontline, and build competence across boundaries. Classroom sessions will dwell on how principals can enable their teachers to be innovative and drive achievement to higher levels; participants will study how major innovation is managed in other contexts.

The LEP programme will also be more relevant to the individual, his experiences and his operating environment. The programme will build on the strengths and experiences of each participant by adopting a more individual orientation, such that our prospective principals can tailor their development to their own unique combination of needs, abilities and interests. This, of course, fits in well with the ability driven paradigm. In the past, we had a one-size-fits-all approach, but prospective principals, like teachers and students, have their own unique talents, abilities and shortcomings. Some will have extensive school management experience, while others may have been in HQ for a long time. Obviously, their learning agendas will be different. Participants will discuss with their tutors - in a critically reflective way - how their own learning is developing. Tutors may direct them in different ways. For example, they may concentrate their reading in certain areas of need, or they may recommend detailed discussion with a principal or a superintendent on particular issues. At the end of the programme, each individual would have optimised his or her learning, and felt that every aspect of the process has been valuable in preparation for principalship.

In addition, the programme�s prime site of learning will be the workplace. Each participant will be based in one school for the entire programme. Because individuals learn in a more powerful way by actually doing things, this extended school attachment will involve participants in carrying out a major innovation project in the school. The project will yield noticeable gains for the school, and will intensify the participant�s learning.

The learning in schools will be complemented by the learning at NIE and in other locations, including international contexts. One of the new components of the LEP is a 2 week overseas visit to study innovative projects in management and curriculum in schools abroad. This will reinforce the understanding that our schools operate in a global context, expand the participants� horizons and open them up to new possibilities.

These enhancements make the LEP programme a very rigorous one. It will be a more compact, intensive programme run like an executive course. Although the programme will be slightly shorter than the DEA programme, there will be a greater quantity of learning. This is achieved by using the time available more flexibly and creatively, and by focusing selectively on those areas that will have the greatest impact on how principals lead their schools to success.

The Leadership programme has been and will continue to be crucial in developing the dynamic school leaders that we need. A good leadership programme has to continuously reinvent itself to remain useful. I commend NIE for taking the initiative in reviewing the programme. It will not remain stagnant. Indeed, it should be regularly reviewed, revised and updated. I am confident that the enhanced programme will meet the needs of our future leaders and the needs of a system dedicated to continually raising the quality of education.

I congratulate you once again upon your graduation from the Diploma in Educational Administration course. It marks a significant milestone in your growth as leaders. There is of course still much to learn about good leadership. In a fast moving world, continuous learning is necessary if school leaders wish to keep up with the changes happening around them and set the pace for fellow educationists. As you acquire more leadership experiences from your principalship, build on what you have learnt here and realise fully your potential as leaders.

As DEA graduands, you represent the future leaders of education in Singapore. Work in creative new ways to help our students realise the Desired Outcomes of Education, and lead your fellow educators in moulding the future of our nation.

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