home 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 2009 PAGE C2
St Andrew’s
JC principal
an adviser
to Microsoft
BY AMELIA TAN
SALVADOR (Brazil): St Andrew’s Junior
College (SAJC) principal Lee Bee Yann is
in illustrious company as an adviser to
Microsoft’s US$500 million (S$700
million) education initiative, Partners In
Learning (PiL).
She is the only school principal and
Singaporean in the 14-member Interna-
tional Advisory Council (IAC), which is
mostly made up of university professors
and government officials.
She was appointed last year and is serv-
ing her second one-year term.
Mrs Lee, 50, and other members of the
council – who include University of To-
ronto Professor Emeritus Michael Fullan
and Australian Council for Educational
Leaders chief executive officer Jenny
Lewis – are in Brazil this week for Micro-
soft’s Innovative Education Forum.
Council members provide Microsoft
with input from current research and edu-
cational trends to help it chart the direc-
tion of its PiL programmes. These aim to
improve the standards of education in
countries all over the world by increasing
access to technology and training.
Mrs Lee got in with this crowd by vir-
tue of her bold move in 2004, when she
was principal of Crescent Girls’ School, to
provide a whole cohort of 360 Secondary
1 students with a tablet computer each.
Under her leadership – Mrs Lee head-
ed CGS for nine years until she joined
SAJC last year – Crescent Girls’ became
the first Singapore school to have an en-
tire cohort of students which learnt pure-
ly through computers.
The Secondary 1 cohort of 2004 used
the computers they were given through-
out their four years of school. Instead of
lugging textbooks to school and handing
in worksheets, the girls learnt from mate-
rials uploaded on the school’s Intranet
network.
Learning continued outside the class-
room, through Live Messenging and docu-
ment sharing programmes.
The results were outstanding. The
girls, who graduated in 2007, scored an
average of 9.4 points in their O levels, the
Principal Lee Bee Yann (left) with St Andrew’s Junior College students Lee Chia Heng (second from
left), 19, and Pang Jia Xin, 17, who are engaged in a pilot game – OrCganic, which teaches organic
chemistry – guided by teacher Sharon Loi-Koh Ching Hwee, 29. ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
쏆 of training programmes for caregivers many of them are primary caregivers to
HOLISTIC APPROACH
“I value character education
a lot, teaching and learning,
understanding the
pedagogies involved and
looking at how we can
apply theories looking at the
way students learn and
fitting our teaching to suit
them. All these pieces must
be in place before
innovation which is
sustainable can come
about.”
SAJC principal Lee Bee Yann
best results in the school’s history.
Her actions impressed Microsoft, said
PiL director James Bernard.
“She was able to lead her school
through change... It shows an additional
level of passion to education and commit-
ment to new ways of thinking, those are
the things that clearly stood out,” said Mr
Bernard.
The soft-spoken Mrs Lee credited her
teachers, who ensured that the students
had all the online resources they needed
to stretch themselves.
“The one-to-one computing pro-
gramme offered personalised learning to
suit their individual needs. This allowed
the students to become self-directed and
independent learners,”she added.
The mother of two boys, aged 15 and
21 years, said that as a school leader she is
able to provide “ground-up feel” on
whether PiL programmes will work.
She also taps on her previous experi-
ence as a researcher in the Ministry of
Education to test the effectiveness of in-
novative teaching and learning practices.
Microsoft uses results from her research
in its PiL programmes.
A strong supporter of the use of tech-
nology in education, Mrs Lee said teach-
ers must start by going back to the basics
of teaching and learning before they intro-
duce technology into the classroom.
“I am an educator. I value character
education a lot, teaching and learning,
understanding the pedagogies involved
and looking at how we can apply theories
looking at the way students learn and
fitting our teaching to suit them. All
these pieces must be in place before inno-
vation which is sustainable can come
about,” she said.
More training
programmes
for caregivers
noting that individuals stressed by the
Funding to come from demands of caring for their aged and in-
firm parents sometimes vent their anger
$1 million kitty; several on the patients because they do not
proposals received know how to cope.
Groups such as NTUC ElderCare and
Touch Community Services told The
BY THERESA TAN
Straits Times yesterday that they are
crafting new programmes or expanding
FOR the second time in two weeks, Dr existing ones to train people in caring
Vivian Balakrishnan yesterday trained for seniors.
the spotlight on families stressed out by NTUC ElderCare, which runs five
the task of caring for the elderly or the day-care centres for seniors, will launch
sick, and pledged more help for them. such a programme in January. It hopes
This help promises to take the form maids will be among the trainees as
and new initiatives that may lighten the elderly, its general manager Lim Sia
their load.
Technology also fea-
Hoe said.
Mrs Tan Kwong
tures among the propos- 쏆
als to be evaluated for
Hua, 63, attended a
course for caregiv-
possible funding: Touch FAMILY UNDER PRESSURE ers organised by
Home Care wants to Touch. She went
use radio frequency “We recognise that the family is with her maid so
identification (RFID) under pressure. Not only are we they could both
tags to track home- having smaller households, learn, among other
bound elderly individu- more seniors are also living
als to whom it delivers
apart from their children.” things, the correct
way to move her dis-
meals and other help Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for abled husband from
Community Development, Youth and
services. wheelchair to bed.
The funding will be Sports Her husband, 66,
from a $1 million kitty is half paralysed and
that has been set up. unable to talk follow-
The Centre for Ena-
ing two major strokes. She said: “You
bled Living in Tiong Bahru, which refers can go crazy taking care of a stroke pa-
the elderly and disabled to available sup- tient. It’s very sad to see my husband so
port services, has received nearly 10 pro- helpless.”
posals hoping to draw on the fund. On the use of RFID, Mr Kavin Seow,
Dr Balakrishnan, the Minister for director of Touch Home Care, said that
Community Development, Youth and when some senior citizens complain
about missing their meals, it could be
Sports (MCYS), said at a conference or-
that volunteers sent the meal to the
ganised by the MCYS-funded centre: wrong address, or that these seniors had
“We recognise that the family is under forgotten they had already eaten.
pressure. Not only are we having small- Putting RFID tags on the doors of sen-
er households, more seniors are also liv- ior citizens’ homes will enable volun-
ing apart from their children.” teers dropping by to “read” the informa-
Late last month, he had raised the is- tion on the tag with reading devices.
sue at a conference on family violence, theresat@sph.com.sg