Academic & Exam Board Members
David an Irish citizen and Singapore PR, is the CEO of Ascend Education Centre with a diverse background in the education industry. David was a research and teaching assistant at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where he was a British Council Chevening Scholar in International Relations from 1996-1997. He holds a primary degree in Economics and a Masters Degree in International Relations. Since 2001, David has made Singapore his home, working and teaching in the Education industry. In 2003 he completed his CELTA with the British Council Singapore. In June 2004, David, in partnership with fellow Irishman Gareth O’Brien, started Ascend Education Centre.
Vinitha is a native of India, but has lived in Singapore and Malaysia for the last 11 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Bombay, India as well as a TESOL certification from SEA English Academy (Australia). She has taught ESL at all levels, IELTS and conducted public speaking and communication workshops. She believes in leveraging her teaching experience and academic background to design engaging and inspiring lessons to effectively address the curriculum and help students realize their individual potential.
She firmly believes that a comfortable and enjoyable classroom experience is the key to positive learning.
Judith started her teaching career in the CHIJ schools where she completed her secondary education. Wanting to spread her wings, she moved into the government schools and has continued as an Education Office with the Ministry of education until she retired. Besides her classroom-related experience, Judith has also conducted teacher-training and observation planned and implemented curriculum and served as external examiner both as an MOE Specialist Inspector and an independent educationist. Judith’s educational experience has been extended to research, preparation and publication of teaching materials, promoting the use of thinking tools, linguistic editing of texts and multi-media materials, copywriting and editing and, just for fun, working on newsletters and other publications for her community.
Academic Board
What does the Ascend Education Centre Academic Board do?
The Academic Board’s principal responsibility is to maintain the highest standards in English language programs and teaching at Ascend Education Centre. The Academic Board is also responsible for overseeing the development of all academic activities at Ascend Education Centre, formulating and reviewing policies, guidelines and procedures in relation to academic matters and playing an active role in assuring the quality of teaching. In short, the Academic Board shall have the responsibility for monitoring and upholding the academic standards of the school and for regulating teaching. Specifically, the Academic Board:
- Engages in the process of design, development and review of the contents of all courses offered by Ascend Education Centre to ensure relevance and rigour.
- Approves the curriculum design and development outcomes of all courses.
- Approves outcomes and recommendations of the curriculum review process.
- Stipulates the optimum teacher-student ratio for every course and the mode of delivery to maximize learning outcomes.
Sets the selection criteria and minimum qualifications for part-time academic staff.
- Approves short listed teacher applicants before recruitment.
- Approves the academic staff deployment