MGS Principal retires after

14 years at the helm

MS KON MEI LEEN has stepped down as Principal of Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) after 30 illustrious years of service to the school. She was Principal for the past 14 years.

Succeeding her from December 2007 is former Bukit Panjang Government High School Principal, Mrs Shirleen Ong, who is MGS’ sixth post-war Principal in the school’s rich 120-year history.

A true-blue MGS girl, Ms Kon studied in MGS and later joined the school as a teacher in 1976 and became Principal in 1994. She is pursuing her personal interests.

On her decision to retire, she said: “I feel it is time for me to pass the baton over to a younger generation. I hope to pursue some of the personal interests I have set aside until now.”

Under her leadership, MGS achieved a delicate balance between academic excellence and a passion for the arts rarely equalled by other schools. A firm believer of providing a total holistic education for the MGS girl, Ms Kon actively championed for programmes and activities that would help nurture the “whole person”.

In deciding who should take over, the MGS Board worked closely with the Ministry of Education, stating the school’s preference for a Christian who would be able to lead by example and carry on the culture and ethos of MGS.

In these aspects, the incoming Principal, Mrs Shirleen Ong, is found to be the right person to bring MGS to the next phase.

Mrs Ong was a teacher in the school in the early 1990s and is therefore no stranger to MGS. Prior to this appointment, she was Vice-Principal of Tanjong Katong Secondary School before becoming Principal of Bukit Panjang Government High School in 2002.

She said: “I am very humbled by Ms Kon’s many years of dedicated service. I will try my best, God willing, to build on the foundations she and many other leaders of the school have painstakingly laid.

“With the very competent team of staff in MGS, we will try our utmost to convert our aspirations into possibilities and realities.”

As the Principal of Bukit Panjang Government High School, Mrs Ong is familiar with setting and achieving high standards as under her leadership, Bukit Panjang Government High School has emerged as one of the better known schools in Singapore.

Said Ms Kon of her successor: “Mrs Ong is placed to lead MGS and we have every confidence that she will do so with distinction and honour in a godly manner.”