06/07/2006
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/smart50/2006/0,3800012822,39372361,00.htm

Industry Education Company The Ministry Of Education directs the formulation and implementation of education policies in Singapore. It has control of the development and administration of the Government and Government-aided primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges, and a centralized institute. It also registers private schools. There are 11 statutory boards under the Ministry of Education Employees 19,000 IT staff 260 Annual IT Budget Confidential

Supporting 25,000 education officers and 2,500 executive and administrative staff, School Cockpit is the main application used to implement most of these administrative duties, including planning national examinations, student postings, education policies, and the management of students' records and results.

In 2005, major enhancements were made to School Cockpit. Besides being used to implement new education policies, the School Cockpit was enhanced with a Web service-based data exchange utility to facilitate information exchange between School Cockpit and the schools' local applications.

A new application to centrally administer billing and collection was also implemented, as well as a virtual private network (VPN) using a Token Assisted Logon (TAL), which frees users from the burden of remembering multiple passwords from different applications.

To manage change during a new IT project, MOE introduced a change management framework involving various aspects like developing a case for change, stakeholder-impact analysis, change readiness assessment and a communications plan. For major IT projects, a Business Process Review (BPR) is typically conducted prior to the IT implementation.

On being awarded a ZDNet Asia Smart50 award, Hang Kim Hoo, manager of MOE's School Cockpit Admin Center, said: "It is an affirmation that IT can be harnessed for administrative excellence. It is really an honor to be selected, knowing that there are many excellent IT projects across Asia. It is wonderful to know that we are on the right track."

At least one of the judges was impressed with the School Cockpit.

Quah Siew Heng, managing director of Atos Origin, Asean, said: "Managing change in an organization of 30,000 staff is all the more challenging when the organization structure is a fairly distributed one.

"MOE has been successful in implementing IT projects which directly affect all the teachers and students. The School Cockpit project is a good example of MOE's ability to deploy IT in the schools," he added.