As we have seen,both principals had taken advantage of the spaces for autonomous action that were beginning to be opened up by the process of decentralization in the late 1980s. In particular they had recognized that there was greater freedom to devise and mount their own school programs, to be more flexible in the of school facilities, and to experiment with different leadership styles. They were in Goldring's term, "dynamic principals" (Goldring, 1996). In this respect,emphasized the important influence on them of their year-long principal training program at the National Institute of Education. This program, which was introduced in 1984 and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, had introduced them to the school leadership literature and provided on-the-job training under the mentorship of a successful secondary school principal (Chong & Boon, 1997). Its introduction in itself clear sign for those looking carefully enough that the MOE was a had recognized the need for what the principal of Queensway called "a new breed of principal.