Low Kenny
Organization: City College & O School
Year Founded: 2002
Country: Singapore
Website: www.chec.edu.sg
Geographic Area of Impact: Singapore.
Model: Hybrid Non-Profit
Focus: Education.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Singapore, 2007 The Innovation City Harvest Education Center (CHEC) breaks just about every educational norm in addressing the academic needs of the target youth population while doing so in a sustainable manner. CHEC’s target population are the young people that have dropped out of the mainstream school system, and ones who have essentially crossed the psychological barrier of playing truant and are disenfranchised with going to school. As such, the teachers at CHEC need to go the extra mile in engaging the students. Besides creating a classroom experience that is fun (colourful walls, no school uniforms, irregular seating arrangements) and interactive (latest smart board technology and lab equipment), the teachers also serve as mentors, counsellors and friends to the students. At CHEC, the teachers’ performance, and bonus, is evaluated by the students. The classroom experience is geared towards creative use of graphics, games, video clips and music to make it easier for students to absorb the concepts being taught, and the teaching staff constantly exchange ideas among themselves on how to engage the students. CHEC has a young teaching staff, none of which are older than 35 years of age. Whereas other private schools might seize any opportunity to profit from an incoming student, CHEC interviews all candidates to gauge their interest in pursuing an education and only accepts those which are committed to academic progress. Every academic course at CHEC has inherent lessons around good values. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sport has recognized the gap that CHEC is meeting in society through this inculcation of values and has invested $100 for each lesson that incorporates life skills trainings. CHEC also owns a social enterprise, O-School, which is a dance school that provides funding for CHEC through its profits. O-School keeps disinterested youths off the streets by offering them an outlet to express themselves while also providing a vibrant platform for young dancers to perform, teach and earn income at the same time. Background National statistics indicate that from the approximately 3500 ‘O’ level private candidates a year, only about 70 percent receive certificates – by receiving at least one credit – and 30 percent of these students will fail every single subject that they take. In a country where education is everything, these students grapple with a system where the mainstream schools will no longer accept them, and if they fall to the wayside, they will likely enter a rehabilitation program but still not see a path towards educational advancement. There is certainly a need to extend aid to these youths and to provide quality education at affordable prices to these students. Many of them come from challenging family backgrounds. At the same time, there is a trend of private schools that charge high fees and yet neither actively monitor student attendance nor track the academic performance of these students. This perpetuates the cycle of examination failure. Over the past decade, there have been many new private education centers sprouting up that seize the opportunity to profit from these higher-paying private candidates while not doing much to further their academic progress. Strategy Kenny Low started City Harvest Education Center (CHEC) in 2002 with the mission to provide a safety net for Singaporean youth who have dropped out from mainstream schools or have failed to perform well in their GCE ‘O’ Level examinations. CHEC offers 9-month, 1-year and 2-year programs to prepare private candidates for the ‘O’ Level examinations. Since starting operations, CHEC has helped 1259 youths in their academic pursuit and about 60% of the current year’s intake will progress on to tertiary education. CHEC candidates have outperformed the average private candidate in Singapore for the past 5 years; in 2004, 92.5% of its students graduated with a GCE ‘O’ Level certificate, compared to a national average of 76.6%. As of 2008, CHEC’s enrolment will represent approximately 8% of the private candidate population in Singapore. To date, CHEC has hosted more than 100 educators from mainstream schools, eager to learn about its approach towards engaging what is commonly deemed as a “difficult” student population. To track its ongoing performance, CHEC uses the following metrics to assess the effectiveness of its programs: reduction of unemployment rate of its students, achieving a higher literacy and educational status for school dropouts and improvement in school attendance rates. O-School, the social enterprise arm of CHEC, provides dance classes, choreography and event management services. All profits generated from this social enterprise go towards supporting bursaries used to support CHEC students from low-income families. Currently, O School has annual revenue of US$500,000 and a 20% profit margin. O-School also aims to use dance as an outreach for at-risk youths, and to provide training and employment for youth with performing arts talents. As of 2008, CHEC has 20 staff and 245 students and at O-School, there are 9 dance instructors, serving over 3000 clients. O-School also has teaching contracts with 6 out of Singapore’s 9 teritary institutions. The Entrepreneur Kenny Low spent 6 years in youth services (4 years volunteering at a local community services agency and another 2 years coordinating their tuition services arm) before setting up CHEC formally. He was motivated by a need for transformation and change in education for the GCE ‘O’ Level private candidates, believing that those candidates should not be limited in their educational options and purpose because of missed opportunities in mainstream schools. At the same time, he was involved in dance since his school days and experienced how dance has developed his confidence. This was what motivated him to set up a social enterprise to promote dance as a healthy outlet of expression while creating jobs for dance talents. During his adolescent years, Kenny enjoyed school and had his share of good teachers, and not-so-good ones. He recalls having an expatriate English teacher who took the class out to the school field one day and had the students tie up one leg and then wobble from one end of the field to the other. Upon returning to the classroom, the teacher told the class to write an essay on what it feels like to be handicapped. This experience opened Kenny’s eyes to how enriching education can be given different teaching approaches and this continues to fuel his passion on the subject.
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