Personal Statement

I was an aspiring lawyer when I took a sharp turn from my legal career to take up a

two-year fellowship to be a teacher in a low-performing school in Malaysia. I wanted to do

something help close the gap of education inequity in Malaysia as I strongly believe that all

children should have the right to access quality education regardless of their socio-economic

background.

Under the fellowship with Teach For Malaysia, a non-profit organisation, I came face-

to-face with the challenges of the underprivileged. The students that I taught were several years

behind their grade level and many lived in complicated family background, leaving them

having little passion to learn as there saw little value in education. To inspire these students to

learn English, I started a mentoring project where I got professionals from different fields to

come and speak to the students. I also had a strong classroom management system to instil

moral values within my students, as I wanted to build a safe environment for all my students,

for some of them does not have a caring environment at home. By the end of the year, half of

the class passed their exam with the highest improvement being 50%.

From the fellowship experience, I recognise that general public-school teachers are not

well supported for their professional growth, hence faced challenges to innovate and improve

in their practice. Thus, I took up the role as an education advisor which drive school

improvement across public-schools in Malaysia. Running the Trust School Programme, a

public-private partnership with the Ministry of Education Malaysia, the programme aims to

help improve school management, teaching and learning quality, building holistic students and

engaging partnership with parents and community. Over the past five years, I have supported

10 schools, more than 100 school leaders and 400 teachers to improve their education quality.
 I am glad to have impacted Malaysian education system at the classroom level to the

school level through my roles. However, I do recognise that my education background with

only Postgraduate Diploma in Education does limit my credibility with the work I do. One day,

I want to utilise my legal background by combining the knowledge and experience I have in

education through policy making to create change at a policy level. I believe that advancing

my career in school management and leadership will enable me to bring improvements at a

system level.

I am aware of the excellent reputation of the university and researching about the course

and campus has deepen my interest to study with the university. Hence, studying the Master of

Educational Management and Leadership with the university will give me the opportunity to

advance my career and realise my dream. I hope I will have the privilege to be among many

great leaders that are nurtured at your fine institution.