22 October 2002

SPEECH BY RADM TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND 2nd MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, AT THE LEP GRADUATION DINNER ON TUE 22 OCT 2002 AT THE GRAND COPTHORNE WATERFRONT HOTEL GRAND BALLROOM @ 7.30 PM

1. It is my pleasure to join you all this evening to celebrate your success in completing the Leaders in Education Programme, after an intensive six months of training. I would also like to take the opportunity to welcome our four Bruneian friends, who have completed the main part of the programme and will be proceeding to our schools for an attachment.

2. The key to high-performing schools is leadership. Effective leaders facilitate and contribute to the quality of schooling, the professionalism of teachers and the learning outcomes of students.

3. The strategic development and deployment of school leaders are too important to be left to chance. We cannot assume that the skills of leadership are naturally acquired as leaders rise to become school principals. School leadership is a complex, multi-faceted enterprise. As chief executives of their schools, principals must fulfil several responsibilities simultaneously and contend with multiple management challenges. Potential leaders must prepare for the role, be inducted into it, and update their own learning continually throughout their careers.

4. This is why leadership preparation programmes at NIE have become the cornerstone in preparing school leaders in Singapore. The Ministry takes the development of school leaders seriously. We require that as part of their preparation, potential school leaders undergo a concentrated period of study and reflection. This represents a significant but worthwhile resource investment.

5. In recent years, there has been strong international interest shown in NIE's leadership programmes by educationists from our region, Australia, and the UK. The participation in the LEP by our Bruneian colleagues reflects that interest. Overseas educators, policy makers and external examiners who visit NIE are enthused by what they have seen and spread the word, by talking about NIE programmes at overseas conferences and similar events.

6. They see that NIE has found a winning formula with its leadership programmes, in particular the LEP.

7. The LEP is structured as a high intensity, executive type programme. It gives a broad perspective on leadership and expands the horizons of participants by sensitising them to developments in education and leadership not just in Singapore, but in the world. There are two features about the programme that make it distinctive.

8. First, LEP provides participants with the intellectual resources for dealing with the highly varied challenges of school leadership. It achieves this not by drilling participants on the micro-issues involved in managing a school. Instead, the programme takes a more expansive approach by exposing participants to broader leadership experiences not just in the context of the school, but in industry as well. Participants learn how managers elsewhere manage and lead their organisations. You would, for instance, have visited organisations outside the education sector, including MNCs like Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Phillips.

9. Participants are also exposed to macro issues that they, as leaders, will have to understand, internalise and articulate in order to execute policy effectively. So for instance, you would have met with Ministry officials to deepen your understanding of our philosophy of education and the conceptual underpinnings of our various education policies.

10. You would also have had the opportunity to visit other countries, and learn about their education systems, structures and the kind of issues they are grappling with. These experiences of the different educational challenges faced around the world help broaden your perspectives on educational issues, and give you a keener appreciation of our own unique strengths and constraints. They will reinforce the understanding that our schools operate in a global context, expand your horizons and open up new possibilities.

11. This broad outlook and rich store of experiences acquired during the LEP will stand you in good stead and provide a powerful sense of perspective as you go on to address the specific challenges of school leadership.

12. Second, the programme helps shape the personal qualities participants need for effective leadership. Participants may feel that the programme is very packed and tight, perhaps even too intensive. The reason for exposing participants to such a regime is to impress upon them that with so many things to do and so much to read, they need to prioritise. The need to prioritise is a very real issue that school leaders have to grapple with every day. Schools have to cope with demands from parents, school boards, the media, and MOE HQ. New responsibilities are often layered atop old ones. This makes it critical that school leaders know how to balance school load and priorities. Otherwise, you and those you lead will be overwhelmed by expectations and demands, not all of which are central to the aims and objectives of the organisations you are running.

13. You would also have come to realise that even if you prioritise well, you cannot achieve all that you want to achieve, working by yourself. Teamwork is essential, and that can only happen if you build up trust with those around you. Trust is essential to all organisations; it is the emotional glue that bonds people to each other and to an organisation. As leaders, it is your responsibility to generate and sustain that trust, by demonstrating candour, care and consistency in your dealings with people. These are the soft skills that are much needed for effective management and that are nurtured in the LEP.

14. The LEP has offered you an experience that you will not get anywhere else in the world. By participating in the programme, you have put your mettle and your talents to the test, and you learnt more about yourself and how you will fare in the high temperatures of leading a complex organisation.

15. NIE has an excellent programme in the LEP. The LEP already enjoys keen international interest and has the potential to set the benchmark for the industry.

16. NIE should further develop and enhance the LEP so that there will be international recognition of LEP as the leading school leadership programme. With LEP as its anchor, NIE is well positioned to be recognised as a hub of excellence in the field of school leadership preparation, and build up a strong branding in that area.

17. The next step would be for NIE to capitalise on that international recognition and extend its influence beyond Singapore. It should develop and market high quality and shorter-term executive programmes that are rigorous, responsive and relevant to the evolving demands of school leadership not just in Singapore, but in the region and beyond.

18. All of you have completed a compact intensive programme at an institution I am confident will play an increasingly prominent international role in the field of school leadership development. Over the last 6 months, NIE has worked with you in the mastery of the theories and strategies of leading people, and in the honing of qualities that make you leaders.

19. But there is one crucial element of leadership that can neither be taught nor acquired in the space of half a year. And that is the passion for leadership.

20. To be a good leader, you must have the love and passion for it. It is not sufficient for you to want to be a school leader; you must want to do school leadership.

21. While leaders come in every size, shape and disposition, every leader shares at least one characteristic: every effective leader is passionate about what he or she is doing and has a concern with a guiding purpose, an overarching vision. They are more than goal-directed. Leaders have a clear idea of what they want to do - personally and professionally - and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. They know where they are going and why.

22. Effective leaders provide a sense of purpose, direction and meaning. Their presence can be felt throughout an organisation. They give pace and energy to the work place and empower the work force. They bring passion, perspective and significance to the work of an organisation. They remind people of what's important and why their work makes a difference. They are able to draw others to them because they have a compelling vision, a dream, a set of intentions, an agenda, a frame of reference.

23. Only leaders with passion can move organisations from current to future states, create visions of potential opportunities for organisations, instil within colleagues commitment to change, and instil new cultures and strategies that mobilise and focus energy and resources.

24. I would therefore encourage everyone of you who chooses to engage himself or herself in this profession to recall what led you to it, recall your own idealism and make that central. Only then can you fire up the passion in those you lead and truly inspire them to do their best for our students.

25. Once again I congratulate you on your success and I wish you all well as you rise to the challenge of realising your full potential as leaders.