September 2012 archive

A school is a very important institution in a society. A school is an institution that determines the survivability of a nation. A school is a place where the future citizens of a nation are being nurtured and prepared to face and triumph over any challenges that may come, to create and to innovate, to lead, to be beneficial to others, to fight for good causes; in short to be Allah’s khalifah. If a nation’s younger generation is instilled with these great qualities, the nation can be led to a greater civilisation.

The success of a school in producing students with such great qualities depends greatly on the ability of its leadership to carry out the tasks and responsibilities placed upon their shoulders. A poor leadership will bring about the downfall of the school, thus will fail to produce citizens with the intended qualities. On the other hand, a school with great leadership will steer its students onto a greater height.

Through my 23-years service as an educator, I have served under quite a few principals. Each and everyone of them had different leadership style. Each leadership style brought about different school’s environment and different results. In this series on school leadership, I will share my experience with schools’ leaderships and my opinions on what the ideal school leadership should be. By sharing my experience and opinions on school leadership, I hope that schools can help our nation to achieve it vision to be a great nation.

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Sekolah Menengah Sains Sembrong (Sembrong Secondary Science School) or SASEM for short is a newly established fully residential school in Kluang, Johor. The school was completed and officially handed over to the Ministry of Education in April 2011.

The first batch of students registered just before the year end school holidays in November 2011. They returned as Form 2 students in January 2012. Currently, there are about 500 students enrolled in the school, consisting of Form 1, Form 2 and Form 4 students. In terms of number of classes, the Form 1 and Form 2 students make up five classes each where as the Form 4 students make up seven classes.

SASEM is a big school; the total area is more than 60 acres. The hostels can accommodate a maximum of 850 students. The school complex is divided into two areas, one area for the academic and administrative buildings and the other for the hostels. The two areas are separated by a small stream which the school cannot do anything about because it is under the jurisdiction of the Water and Drainage Department. It takes about a 5 minutes walk from the hostel to the academic building.

These are some of the buildings in the school complex.

The administrative block

The academic blocks

The building where the staff room, library and meeting room are located

The Boy’s Hostel

The Girl’s Hostel

The covered walk path which connects the academic and the hostel blocks

On the left and middle are the teacher’s and non-academic staff’s quarters

The Khalifah Hall, the school’s main hall

On the foreground is the kitchen and dining hall on the lower level and the praying hall on the upper level. On the background is the boys hostel

The small stream which separates the hostel and the academic blocks

There your are. The school complex is quite big but is beautiful. Enjoy the beauty of the school.

Cheers!!!