Wednesday March 20, 2013

Principal pulls school out of bottom field with New Deal

School pride: Students and teachers of SMK Seri Kembangan. The once blighted school has turned into an exemplary one, giving new hope to less-performing students.

SERI KEMBANGAN: A local secondary school here, previously lumped among the bottom in a list of 2,000-odd schools, has successfully clawed its way to recognition in the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Report 2012.

SMK Seri Kembangan received special mention in the report for successfully implementing the New Deal programme under the Improving Student Outcomes section of the report.

School principal Tay Keng Lee (pic) was credited with implementing the New Deal programme and “making the impossible possible”.

Under the programme, Tay managed to hoist the school out of its 1,930th position out of 2,248 to 561st spot, surpassing more than a thousand other schools in the country.

“When I initially shared the New Deal ideas with the teachers, even my secretary was sceptical,” said Tay.

However, the changes took the school by storm when he introduced many programmes to improve the students' performance, ranging from motivation camps to extra classes after school.

Tay said such an achievement would not have been possible without dedicated teachers and administrators in the school.

“We have created history. It was as if we created a miracle for SMK Seri Kembangan,” he said.

The New Deal is an incentive programme by the Government to motivate principals and head teachers to improve their school.

Tay's secretary, Ho Siow Foong, said the principal was very involved with the students, even sacrificing his personal time to educate those who were less gifted.

“He would conduct extra classes with help from other teachers and provide food and transport for them,” she said.

Following such measures, the pass rates of Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) students from remove classes increased to 61.47% last year. By comparison, more than half failed their mid-terms earlier that year.

News

Wednesday March 20, 2013

Principal pulls school out of bottom field with New Deal