It's the People Who Build Strong Schools

06 Aug 2026

6 Min Read

Melissa Gomes (Columnist), The Taylor's Team (Editor)

IN THIS ARTICLE

A conversation with Melissa Gomes, Co-Founder & CEO of Edvolution, on what it really takes to support Malaysia's teachers, and why Edvolution chose to partner with Taylor's College on the RISE Educator Award 2026.

Melissa Gomes started her career in management consulting, trained to solve problems at scale. Then she joined Teach For Malaysia and stepped into a classroom, and the problems stopped being theoretical.

'They became deeply personal,' she recalls. 'I saw students with incredible potential whose opportunities were shaped not by ability, but by the quality of support around them. I also met teachers who cared immensely but were often stretched thin, expected to solve increasingly complex problems with limited resources and support.'

That shift in perspective, from systems to people, is what led her to co-found Edvolution. Nearly a decade and 37 districts later, it's still the belief the organisation is built on: if you want lasting change in education, you invest in the people closest to students every day. Teachers and school leaders always come first.

A Decade of Watching Malaysia's Classrooms Evolve

Across nearly ten years working with schools nationwide, urban and rural, large and small, one thing has stayed constant for Melissa: the commitment of the educators themselves. 'I've met teachers who genuinely want the best for their students,' she says.

What has changed is the weight schools now carry. 'Teachers today are expected to do much more than teach content,' she explains. 'They're supporting students' wellbeing, integrating technology, developing future-ready skills and responding to increasingly diverse classroom needs.' It's a shift that has asked considerably more of teachers than the job used to require.

Alongside that added weight, though, she's also watched the conversation itself shift for the better. Schools, she notes, are growing more open to collaboration and professional learning, and are asking sharper questions than before. 'Conversations have moved beyond simply "covering the syllabus" to asking, "How do students learn best?" or "How can this benefit my teachers?"'

What Gets Missed When We Talk About Fixing Schools

Ask most people how to improve education and the conversation drifts quickly toward curriculum reform, classroom technology, or examination results. Melissa has spent enough years inside schools to know these aren't wrong, but they aren't the whole answer either.

'Education is fundamentally a people business,' she says. 'Curriculum matters. Technology matters. Assessment matters. But none of these creates meaningful change on their own. It is teachers who bring the curriculum to life. It is school leaders who create environments where good teaching can flourish.'

She's watched schools with almost nothing achieve remarkable outcomes because they had a genuine culture of collaboration. She's also watched schools with every resource imaginable stall out, because teaching had quietly become 'business as usual' instead of a shared purpose. The difference rarely comes down to funding or facilities. It comes down to whether leadership and teaching are working in partnership or working in isolation.

Great schools, she says, don't rely on great teachers alone or great leaders alone. They need both. Teachers are closest to students and understand what works in the classroom and where support is needed; school leaders create the conditions that let teachers do their best work.

'The strongest leaders I've met don't try to control every classroom,' Melissa explains. 'They build trust, encourage professional dialogue and create space for teachers to grow. When leadership and teaching are working in partnership, improvement becomes something everyone owns rather than something that is imposed from the top.'

That partnership runs both ways. Great teachers, in turn, see themselves as contributors to the wider school community, not just their own classroom.

It's also, she notes, why quick fixes so rarely stick. The schools that sustain real improvement share one trait: disciplined, consistent leadership that stays focused on a few priorities over time, rather than chasing every new trend. 'School improvement is less about finding the perfect strategy and more about building the capacity to keep getting better.'

Beyond Training: What Teachers Actually Need

If professional development were the whole solution, Malaysia's teacher retention and morale challenges would look very different by now. Melissa is careful to separate the two.

'Teachers need to know that they're trusted, supported and valued,' she says. 'Professional development is important, but learning doesn't happen in isolation.' Manageable workloads, supportive leaders, real opportunities to collaborate with peers, and regular encouragement matter just as much as any workshop. Many teachers entered the profession to make a difference, she points out, and it's the accumulation of administrative pressure and competing demands, not any single event, that erodes that sense of purpose over time.

Her vision for redesigning teacher support isn't another add-on. It's embedding professional growth into the rhythm of the job itself, through coaching, group lesson planning, and structured peer observation, rather than treating it as a once-a-year event mandated from the top. 'I'd also like to see clearer career pathways that allow teachers to grow without necessarily having to leave the school to progress professionally.'

Why Recognition Is More Than a Celebration

This is where Edvolution's mission and the RISE Educator Award converge. For Melissa, recognising educators isn't a nice-to-have layered on top of the real work. It's part of the work.

'Recognition sends an important message about what we value as a society,' she says. 'When we celebrate educators, we're also affirming that teaching matters.' Beyond the individual moment of being honoured, recognition surfaces good practice, builds professional pride, and gives other educators something concrete to strive toward. 'At its best, recognition builds a culture where educators feel seen, not just for outcomes, but for the commitment, creativity and resilience they demonstrate every day.'

It's this alignment, between Edvolution's mission to strengthen education by strengthening educators and the RISE Educator Award's purpose, that made the partnership with Taylor's College a natural extension of that mission. 'Improving education requires schools, higher education institutions, organisations and industry partners working together. That collaborative spirit is exactly why this partnership made sense for us.'

One detail of the RISE Educator Award stood out to Melissa in particular: its support extends beyond individual teachers to their schools. That distinction reflects something she's seen firsthand, again and again.

'No teacher succeeds alone. Even the most dedicated educator is shaped by the culture, leadership and systems around them,' she says. 'When schools invest in collaboration, professional learning and supportive leadership, those benefits reach every classroom, not just one. That's why recognising schools alongside teachers is so meaningful. It acknowledges that excellent teaching is often the result of a healthy ecosystem where people are learning and growing together.'

What Gives Her Hope

Despite the scale of the challenges she describes, Melissa doesn't speak about Malaysian education with cynicism. If anything, the opposite.

'I'm encouraged by how many educators are willing to learn, adapt and collaborate,' she says. She points to schools embracing innovation thoughtfully rather than adopting change for its own sake, and to a rising generation of younger teachers and emerging school leaders bringing fresh ideas while staying deeply committed to their students. What encourages her most, though, is a broader shift in mindset: more organisations recognising that improving education isn't the responsibility of schools alone.

Looking five years ahead, her hope is simple to state and hard to execute: a move away from treating education reform as a series of isolated initiatives, and toward long-term capacity building. 'Real improvement doesn't happen because of one programme or one policy announcement. It happens when we consistently invest in people, teachers, school leaders and the systems that support them.'

'Education has always been a long game,' she says. 'The more patient and intentional we are in building strong foundations today, the greater the impact we'll see for future generations.'

It's a fitting note on which to arrive at the RISE Educator Award 2026. Not as an isolated moment of celebration, but as one part of the long, patient work Melissa has spent her career committed to: building an ecosystem where teachers, school leaders, and the institutions around them grow together.

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