FASS Advisor Mrs Chua-Lim Yen Ching Receives Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award
October 21, 2019
“A well-loved and much respected educator, Mrs Chua-Lim Yen Ching is best known for her role in conceptualising NorthLight School to admit students with difficulties handling the mainstream academic curriculum. During her stint, she touched the lives of many students and touched the hearts of many Singaporeans,” said Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Education.
Minister Chee recognised Mrs Chua, a NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Advisory Board member, at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Annual Homecoming on 19 October 2019.
Mrs Chua, received the Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award for her long and distinguished career as an educator. She was amongst 39 alumni recognised by NTU for her outstanding achievements and contributions to the University and to society.
Mrs Chua served as NorthLight’s founding principal when the school took in its first batch of students for the enhanced vocational education programme in January 2007. By the end of her stint in 2011, over 80 per cent of North-Light’s students – who are less academically inclined – had completed its three-year course and many continued to pursue their education with the Institute of Technical Education. Today many of the alumni are doing well, contributing to society and making a difference to their families.
In an interview with The Straits Times, she once said: “Hope is such a powerful word for young people. Hope is not wishful thinking but confident expectation. If we have hope and put in effort towards our goal, even the impossible can be possible. For many of the students, we may not be able to change the starting of their stories but we can work with them and their families to have a new ending to their stories”.
She is currently Deputy Director-General of Education for Professional Development, and also Executive Director of the Academy of Singapore Teachers with the Ministry of Education.