NTU's National Institute of Education (NIE) receives $2.1 million from Temasek Foundation for the first phase of an educational leadership programme in Vietnam.

Temasek Foundation has joined hands with NIE, Singapore's national teacher-training institute, and Vietnam's National Institute of Education Management (NIEM) to train Vietnamese school leaders and senior education officials under the Vietnam-Singapore Centre for Educational Excellence (VSCEE).

The $2.1 million in funding from Temasek Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organisation, supports the first phase of training, which aims to develop excellence in school leadership to bring about systemic improvements in the Vietnamese education system. For starters, some 480 Vietnamese school leaders will be trained this year.

The three-way partnership was announced at the launch of the "Temasek Foundation-NIE Educational Leadership Programme for Vietnam" in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 11 March. The ceremony was witnessed by Dr Nguyen Thien Nhan, Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education and Training; Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Minister for Education and Minister for Finance; and Mr Goh Geok Khim, Chairman of Temasek Foundation. VSCEE, set up as a Centre for Educational Excellence in Hanoi, was also unveiled at the ceremony five months after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to establish it.

NIE's leading export: The Leaders in Education Programme
The training collaboration between NIE and NIEM will enable Vietnamese school leaders to learn about the latest developments in school leadership and gain first-hand experience of the Singapore school system.

The first group of 30 Vietnamese school principals and education ministry officers commenced a customised executive programme in Singapore in end-March. The two-week Educational Leadership Programme for Vietnam (ELPV) builds on NIE's highly successful Leaders in Education Programme, which has been producing top leaders for Singapore schools over the past few years. Participants work with both seasoned professors in educational leadership and practitioner-leaders from schools.

Some 150 core trainers from 64 provinces of Vietnam will undergo the ELPV, which is expected to benefit an additional 1,920 school leaders in Vietnam as the trainers pass on their knowledge in their respective provinces.

As part of the NIE-NIEM collaboration, 330 provincial trainers will also receive two weeks of training in NIEM, conducted jointly by NIE and NIEM, before coming to Singapore for a one-week visit and attachment to Singapore schools.

© Corporate Communications Office