There has been much talk about the need to nurture a spirit of innovation and enterprise (I& E) among our students. But not everyone knows what I& E is. To ensure that everyone is of the same mind as we strive to foster I& E in our schools, the Organisation Development Division, Planning Division and the Schools Division jointly conducted a series of workshops in February and March 2004.

The Tier 1 I&E Workshops kicked off on 10 February. Forty-two enthusiastic I&E champions and facilitators from the North 6 Cluster were brought on a journey that our schools had recently embarked on.

The workshop was aimed at enabling I&E champions to gain a better understanding of I&E, and to get them thinking about how they could encourage I&E in their schools. The first task was to “unpack” their own understanding of what I&E is or is not. They also engaged in thinking about the role teachers play in shaping the mindsets of future generations.

Many questions were raised by the participants throughout the two-day workshop. The participants were concerned about the implications of I&E for their schools — how parents would perceive it, whether it would increase the teachers’ workload, and whether there would be a need to set key performance indicators to measure I&E.

Their fears were quickly put to rest as they listened to what Acting Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Permanent Secretary (Education) Chiang Chie Foo had to say.

“This is not about overhauling the school system or the education system,” emphasised Mr Shanmugaratnam. He explained that it was precisely because the system was in good shape that we had to look ahead, size up the changes taking place and respond to them ahead of time.

One point that was continually stressed was that I&E is not a new initiative. Said Mr Chiang, “I&E should not be projected as a new idea. It is a continuing journey.” He pointed out that the journey really began with the conceptualisation of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation, and that I&E is essentially a mindset.

“Looking forward, we want to focus our thinking and our way of doing things so that the attitude of mind and the environment can be aligned,” he said.

For Mr Alphonsus Mahimy, Head of the Physical Education Department at Anderson Primary, the workshop reinforced the importance of nurturing I&E in schools. “One of the things that came out very clearly from this workshop was that I&E is a culture, and it can be cultivated or nurtured in everyone, from the non-teaching staff to teachers and pupils, and even the stakeholders of the school,” he said. He hopes to get his teachers to understand that I&E is not “just another add-on”.

Mr Wee Wen Shih, Head of the IT Department at Anderson Junior College, believes this is the way forward for the Education Service. “I&E is a journey towards continuous improvement and excellence in a fast-changing world. It is thus important for schools to recognise any I&E effort, regardless of the scale of implementation, and to celebrate successes as well as failures,” he said.

These champions will go on to engage the rest of their colleagues within their individual clusters and schools in Tier 2 efforts to cascade the I&E message to all.