Innovative school finds right mix

More scope

Since 2019, the proportion of Hong Kong students among those newly enrolled at the Luohu school has fallen from 80 percent to about 50 percent.

Chen said, "Hong Kong-style education is the label we're best known for, but now we need to tear it off and establish new advantages."

Transferred from a public school in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, Chen believes the blending of Hong Kong and mainland education methods at the Shenzhen school offers more scope for innovation.

Aiming to be a game-changer, he has reformed the school's curriculum, teaching style and management.

Amid an evolving student population, Chen has streamlined content for general studies－one of the four key subjects in Hong Kong primary school education, along with Chinese, English and mathematics.

The school has introduced courses such as Education of International Understanding, and also Robotics, to widen students' perspective and encourage their interest in science.

More efforts have been made to develop self-learning ability among its senior students. Rather than simply following teachers, these students are often required to summarize the content of textbooks before presenting the results to classmates.

Chen has also updated the appraisal system for teachers, offering more incentives for members of staff who perform well.

He hopes the measures he has introduced will encourage more initiative from teachers and students, and inject new momentum for the school to advance amid challenges such as those posed by the pandemic.

To address such challenges, Chen is eyeing new opportunities through closer cross-border interaction as part of the plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

After social unrest in Hong Kong in 2019, and amid the pandemic, a group of Hong Kong children living in Shenzhen but studying in their home city have switched back to attending schools in Shenzhen.

In September, the Luohu school received some 200 transfer applications in two weeks after Hong Kong decided to continue suspending classes, but could only offer about 20 places, Chen said.

He envisions that in the long run, incentives will continue to be introduced to attract talent from Hong Kong to the mainland, with the aim of building the 11-city Greater Bay Area into a world-class technological powerhouse. This would also result in a rise in the number of Hong Kong children based in Shenzhen.

In view of the Greater Bay Area's prospects, many Hong Kong parents have said they are willing to allow their children to continue studying on the mainland, Chen said.

The Hong Kong Education Bureau has voiced support for schools in the Greater Bay Area offering 12 years of education to Hong Kong and Macao students.

Some secondary schools in Guangzhou have classes designated for students from Hong Kong and Macao, but in Shenzhen, all schools and classes catering to such students only offer education at primary level.

With central government support, and to address long-term demand, the Luohu establishment has proposed setting up a secondary school for Hong Kong children in Shenzhen. Discussions have started on details of the plan, including the location and the curriculum.

Liu, now 77, has done what he set out to accomplish, in line with a saying by Confucius, "It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

Now living in Shunde, Guangdong, a city known for its Cantonese cuisine, Liu has taken up a wide range of activities in "retirement".

Besides leading the Luohu school, he also has another role to challenge himself－training teachers in areas such as Guizhou province, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Speaking about the school's development, he said the "unique bonds "between Shenzhen and Hong Kong enabled the facility and himself to undertake a series of missions.

By resolving firmly to serve the young people of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, the school, which is marking its 20th anniversary, appears to have established a path for itself.