‘International education’ can play a key role in development of China’s Greater Bay Area, says pioneer Hong Kong schools veteran
- The economic growth of the GBA will spur demand for ‘international education’ from local students, says Betty Chan Po-king of Yew Chung International Schools
- Chan shuns the idea that ‘international’ means transplanting a western model, favouring the concept of bringing together different cultures
The Greater Bay Area’s economic integration will see greater demand for “international education” at private schools, with most of this coming from local students rather than expatriates, according to an education veteran.
Betty Chan Po-king, CEO of Yew Chung International Schools in Hong Kong, said for the GBA to rival other hubs, today’s students need to be taught the right people skills to lead the region’s future growth.
“Given rapid economic development and technological advancement in the GBA, to succeed, students need to be creative, resilient, agile, open-minded, ready to collaborate with people from different cultures and have a humble attitude for lifelong learning,” she said in an interview. “These are not skills easily taught in traditional classrooms.”
Chan has co-founded and built with her husband Paul Yip Kwok-wah a string of Yew Chung and Yew Wah branded private schools in mainland Chinese cities since 1993.
Yip is a former adviser to the central government and later adviser to Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.
On her return to Hong Kong after obtaining her doctorate degree in early childhood education in the US in the early 1970s, Chan rebuilt the Yew Chung primary school in Kowloon which was first set up by her mother in 1927.
Chan was one of the pioneers of the “learning through play” teaching method for children in Hong Kong.
