Thirtieth Anniversary Open Day of
Hong Kong Chinese Women’s Club College
17 April 2009
Speech by Mrs Betty IP TSANG Chui-hin
Deputy Secretary for Education

    Mrs LAU (School Supervisor), Mr WONG (School Principal), Distinguished Guests, Parents, Staff and Students,

    I am delighted to join you this morning to celebrate the Thirtieth Anniversary Open Day of Hong Kong Chinese Women’s Club College. 

    Throughout the past three decades, the College has committed to its mission of serving the community by cultivating high calibre youths through the delivery of quality education and nurturing thousands of brilliant young people to serve our society.  Besides providing a stimulating learning environment to our students, it has also actively promoted various kinds of extra-curricular activities to foster students’ all-round development. 

    Inspired by the school motto of “Knowledge and Perseverance”, students here are provided with abundant opportunities to learn through diversified learning activities.  Not only are they empowered to develop generic skills to acquire, construct and communicate knowledge, but also instilled with the will to persevere and the passion for lifelong learning.  Indeed, the College has effectively laid a solid foundation to develop students into active learners, critical thinkers and socially responsible citizens.

    From the recent global financial crisis, we can see how easily the economy of Hong Kong and our own living can be affected by what is happening in other parts of the world.  This serves to show us the equal importance of mastering subject knowledge and acquiring different skills through varied learning activities, so that we can face the keen competition brought about by globalization and to stand up to challenges or adversities in life.  In addition to learning to be creative and critical in our thinking, we should also equip ourselves well with essential skills such as IT, communication and problem solving skills.  All these generic skills and diversified learning activities can enrich our experiences and enable us to stay competitive in a globalized world.

    As you all know, learning should not be confined to the classroom.  We encourage students to gain greater exposure to different aspects of the HK community as well as to events happening around them in the society for their whole-person development.  Towards this end, we have made “Other Learning Experiences” (the so called “OLE”) one of the key components under our New Senior Secondary Curriculum to be implemented in September this year.   Under the new curriculum, schools will need to offer OLE opportunities both within and outside normal school settings to facilitate the balanced development of students.  These include moral and civic education, physical and aesthetic education, community service and career-related experiences. 

    Here I wish to point out that OLE also facilitates character building of students, including the development of qualities such as perseverance which has been given prominence in the school motto.  Engagement in OLE nurtures students to face their responsibilities and challenges confidently, foster a positive attitude towards life as well as a commitment to their families, their society and their country.  More importantly, it contributes to the improvement of overall quality of our society.

    It is pleasing to observe that the College has been unceasingly providing its students with plenty of other learning experiences like encouraging them to participate in inter-school competitions, the annual performance of the School Band and the organization of exchange programs to widen the horizon of students.  Amongst the many achievements to-date, one of your Secondary 7 students has won the First Award and the Best of Category Award in Environmental Management at the 58th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007.  This is a telling example of your school’s efforts in promoting experiential learning among students.  It vividly demonstrates how experiential learning can help students cultivate healthy concepts and achieve success in life.                                                     

   My heartfelt gratitude is extended to the sponsoring body-the Hong Kong Chinese Women’s Club, as well as the school management, the school Supervisor, the Principal and the teachers for their contribution to education in Hong Kong through these years.
                                                                                      
   On this memorable occasion, I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations again on the Thirtieth Anniversary Open Day of the school.  May I wish you all good health and every success in future endeavours.  Thank you.