It may appear that Mr Prakash S/O A Divakaran likes the paper chase – but there’s more to it. 

The lecturer at ITE College East’s School of Electronics & Info-Comm Technology continues to stack on the certificates in his fields of teaching. The reason is simple: He can update his industry knowledge, keep the curriculum fresh, and motivate his students while he’s at it.

Whether it is programming, electronics, or applied AI, students can discuss topics with Mr Prakash like a peer, and be inspired by him as a teacher. That connection they share lays the groundwork for learning, he says.

“Students have little exposure to what happens outside of school, in the industry. Until they visit a trade convention or know how an industry certification can benefit a career, they won’t understand why they’re learning about resistors, capacitors and inductors,” Mr Prakash explains. “I help them make the connections.”

In his characteristic soft-spoken tones, he recounts how as a polytechnic student studying electronics, he couldn’t see where he was headed until after he graduated and joined the workforce. He wants to bring that a-ha moment forward for his students.

Today, he networks extensively to immerse his students in an ecosystem of contacts, competitions and opportunities, to give them more bridges to meaningful work and avenues to success.

Stacking value with certifications

ITE College East’s Value-Added Programme (VAP) is one such significant opportunity that Mr Prakash leads and pours his energies into. 

Students under the VAP graduate with an ITE certificate as well as other industry certifications.

After VAP was launched by his school’s Director in 2023, Mr Prakash upped the ante. He identified three rigorous and globally recognised credentials – PCEP Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer, CompTIA IT Fundamentals+ and Huawei Certified ICT Associate (Cloud Service) – to stretch the potential of selected students. 

The Python Programmer exam is known to be difficult, even for university graduates and working adults. Mr Prakash is happy to note that over half of his 40 students who sat for the exam so far have passed. 

Meanwhile, over 50 students have been equipped with at least one of these credentials. All other students are also offered the opportunity to obtain other certifications of varying intensity. 

It isn’t just about keeping students industry-relevant and employable. But having a credential on their resume “tells employers that this person can step up and learn something new if you need them to”, he adds. 

Beyond the numbers, the impact of the VAP is seen through the students’ transformation. “Some who nearly made the mark were motivated enough to retake the Python exam on their own accord,” Mr Prakash shares with pride. It reinforces his belief that such certificate programmes as well as industry competitions go far in moulding his students’ skills, self-belief and tenacity.

To be sure that students were able to clear such high bars, Mr Prakash clears them first, and gets certified himself. This puts him in the best position to mentor the students in their preparation.

Tech competition brings student out of his shell

The quiet ways in which he mentors and role-models appear to be Mr Prakash’s secret weapon when helping students step into their power. 

He recalls a student, Zamien, who barely spoke to him in his first year, till one day, the boy stayed behind after class and asked to speak with him.

He wanted to discuss an electronics sensor he was designing – to tackle his father’s frustration with personal mobility devices speeding through blind spots near their home. 

Mr Prakash didn’t want to let the moment of inspiration go. He encouraged Zamien to develop his idea with his classmates, and submit his proposal at a school-wide contest for innovative solutions. Zamien’s team didn’t win, but a fire in his belly was lit.

When the opportunity came along to take part in Huawei’s Tech4City competition, Mr Prakash alerted Zamien to it, and he didn’t hesitate. The annual competition encourages youths to co-create tech-driven innovations for social good. 

This time, Zamien’s team had the idea of attaching an AI camera to traffic lights to give elderly pedestrians more time at road crossings. Besides being programmed to spot the elderly, the team’s system was sensitive enough to be handicap-friendly too – it could even detect a black walking cane against dark tarmac. The team took home the first prize. 

That night, Zamien found himself presenting the solution live on television alongside Huawei’s CEO. “It broke him out of his cocoon,” says Mr Prakash. Zamien went on to be named an ITE College East Outstanding Graduate. 

Building AI bridges for the teaching fraternity

Mr Prakash extends the same network-building benefits to his fellow educators. 

He partnered with Lenovo and Intel to develop Generative AI solutions for the classroom, and went on to organise a national Promptathon Challenge 2025 for educators.

It drew nearly 60 educators from MOE schools, polytechnics and ITE. This facilitated their learning on how AI tools could improve classroom engagement and learning.

As Chief Module Coordinator at ITE, for example, Mr Prakash gathered his peers from the three ITE colleges to embed Generative AI into the IoT Fundamentals Foundation Module. This frees students up from needing to learn how to code, to focus instead on the functional aspects of how machines and devices can be connected digitally (e.g. how smart homes or factories could operate). 

By using the Intel platform to deliver lessons, Mr Prakash was authorised in 2024 to train other educators in tech-integrated teaching and learning experiences. In 2025, Intel qualified him to mentor educators globally in AI-infused pedagogy.

What motivates him to share knowledge widely with the teaching fraternity? “It keeps them and me relevant,” he explains simply.

For all the certifications and accolades his students strive for, or the enthusiastic and independent learning that they display, Mr Prakash comes back to a simpler measure of a job well done. “I want students to see the big picture,” he says.

A good day to him is “seeing potential being rewarded”, like when a student finishes what they set out to do, or chooses to stretch themselves further – of their own accord. He adds, “That’s when the work I do makes sense.”

“It isn’t just teaching technology that I enjoy, but also engaging students and building networks to better support them. This keeps me going.”
Mr Prakash