On 16 August, 1997 about 500 Principals and Vice-Principals attended a half-day Principals’ Forum titled ‘Thinking Schools, Learning Nation: The Big Picture’ with Mr Lim Siong Guan, Permanent Secretary for Education, as Guest-of-Honour.

In his Forward to participants, Mr Wee Heng Tin, Director-General of Education, reminded Principals and Vice-Principals that "creating a thinking environment is our greatest challenge and has to begin with leaders in the organisation.

"As leaders, we must create an environment which supports and nurtures thinking and innovation."

The crux of the seminar was to encourage creativity among staff and in turn, stimulate thinking and innovation among pupils.

Mr Wee also emphasised that there were two important issues concerning Principals -- the management of people as well as the management of information. He stressed, "In a thinking, creative environment, everyone who has a good idea has accessibility to the boss or other colleagues to share the idea ... This access by everyone to everyone fosters creativity and thinking and helps the flow of innovative ideas. Accessibility to each other facilitates teamwork and enables everyone to be active participants in meeting the challenges ahead."

As such, changes need to be made in the school environment.

In his speech ‘The Thinking School’, Mr Wee explained that what worked well in the past may no longer work in the future. For instance, top-down thinking must now make way for bottom-up lateral thinking.

On the same note, in his address ‘Transforming The Nation With Education’, Mr Lim Siong Guan quoted PM Goh "we must change the mindset that only a few leaders at the top of the system need to think and take responsibility for social and national issues, while the rest of society simply mind their own business and go about their daily lives."

Rather, it is vital for every Singaporean to bring about a spirit of innovation, of learning by doing and of how improvements can be made at each level. With that, Mr Lim outlined several prerequisites Principals should possess in order for change to occur -- clear vision; leadership; self-confidence; moral courage; and passion for the mission.

The seminar closed with the Principals and Vice-Principals determined to improve the future of their pupils through creative and innovative school cultures.

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