Wu See Lun Shian
(Crazy Thoughts)

James Koo
 

Recently a Lighter asked what I have been doing as I have been invisible for sometime. Another wondered if I have vanished from the earth. I still live in HK, have been working very hard, and have been keeping up with the Lighters. OK, I will write some on ãlunch topics,ä the topics I know nothing about. Hope this will attract others with more informed, learned, sophisticated, and expert opinion, and meaningful discussions.

Some times ago, CC Luk reported about somebody tried to trade mark the name Pui Ching in China. This action is despicable, especially when the perpetrators are Pui Ching alumni. However, under any dark cloud, one can always find silver linings. We can be proud of the fact that somebody thought highly of the name Pui Ching. The sad truth is that the reputation of Pui Ching is fast declining in HK. Peter Tong recently forwarded an article reported this fact. Attached newspaper clippings also reflect this fact÷Pui Ching or its graduates are no long in the list of the bests in HK.

One of the current prevailing thinking is that privatization is cure to most, if not all problems. If privatization does not work, more money will. I wonder if this is universal solution, especially for schools. Berkeley is a public school, and is a top school in U.S. Univ. of Santa Clara, a private one, right in its backyard, is hardly known. Pui Ching grades school is a private school, but is not on the list of the schools with highest scores either (attached). Meanwhile the famous schools listed here are ãgovernment directly supported.ä Their tuitions are very high even with government direct subsidy. I understand people line up just for application forms. That is, if the school is good, HK people are willing to pay the high tuition, and you may not need a large bank roll.

A few Lighters suggested the problem is the affiliation with the Baptist Church. The church may not have the best solution for the school. But I noticed the Baptist grades school in Sha Tin is one of the best (see attached). Other famous schools in HK such as St. Paul, DGS, DBS, and so on, they are all church affiliated. Understand Maryknoll dropped out the best school list as Maryknoll Coventry in U.S. pulled out all the sisters and basically severed its relation with the school.

One Lighter told me that the decline of Pui Ching started in 1970âs when the HK government started to provide funds to private schools on the condition that they can allocate a certain students to the school. Pui Ching declined and did not get the best students allocations, while most other good private schools accepted those first tier students.

Good students make a good school. And a good school attracts good students. Then good students make good graduates and keep the school good, and so on. Once a school has acquired a reputation being either good or bad, it will remain there for sometime, unless something drastic happens, then it will gradually switch from one group to the other, and then will remain there. What has happened to Pui Ching? Or what has happened in HK?

Forty years ago, when we were high school students, the best, the smartest students pursued math, and science subjects. And Pui Ching was one of the best if not the best in these subjects, and attracted the best students then. Even in Pui Ching, the smarter (or at least better performed) ones went to sections C and D, while the 2nd tier ones went to sections A & B. This was also the case in other schools like Maryknoll.

Today, the best students choose medicine, legal and business fields in HK. Possibly as doctors, lawyers, and accountants in HK earn more than their counterparts in U.S., while the engineers earn only about a quarter to a third of their U.S. counterparts. Last fall, the top high school graduates chose medical, legal and financial fields of HK University, while those at bottom went to Material Science department of City U. This year, among the top 120 high school graduates, only two wanted to study engineering. With a reputation in math and science, can Pui Ching attract the best students in HK? Will a privatized Pui Ching attract them?

To be, or remain on the top, a good school has to adapt to the needs of the best students. Prof. Wu Chia Wei, a Pui Ching graduate, started HK University of Science and Technology (HKUST) with huge funds from HK government. He recruited many top professors from all over the world, with salaries equal to or higher than most American schools. Today, its science and engineering departments are good but not the tops in any list that I can find (I stand to be corrected as I have limited knowledge in the field of education). However, HKUST has one of the best MBA program in South East Asia÷something Prof. Wu, HKUST, and HK can be proud of. I believe this will attract better students and that in turn make HKUST a better-known school. Should Prof. Wu continue to be the president, in addition to management science, HKUST may add medical science, legal science and political science to its curriculum and possibly replacing HK U to be the top school in HK. While I was not aware of any business classes, I did remember we had very good bio-science courses and have many MDâs among us.

The best HK students also choose English secondary schools today as English has become increasingly important than before. Today almost all HK universities teach most classes in English. Also, HK has gong from low cost manufacturing to international banking, trading and commerce. The ability of English speaking is required for most low-level white-collar workers in HK.

Besides math and science, Pui Ching does have unique strengths. Pui Ching is also very strong in Chinese. With China playing an increasingly important role in international commerce, the ability of speaking Mandarin has become an essential skill. The son of a Lighter got into McKenzie, a pre-eminent consulting company in U.S. His ability of speaking Mandarin allowed him to do business with China. However, the MC at the welcome ceremony of the first Chinese spaceman in HK spoke perfect Mandarin and she is a senior from DGS÷an English school. Unless Pui Ching focuses and enhances its strength, smart students from other schools can easily catch on. Can Pui Ching be the first bi or tri-lingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, and English) school?

Time is not on our side. With a second rate student body, we will have the second rate alumni in the future and less ability to help solve this problem.

OK, I have said way too much about something I know absolutely nothing. Hope those who are in the know, will come forth to discuss and find a solution as how to restore Pui Ching to its former glory, and fight those trying to appropriate the name for their personal gains. Meanwhile, an educator may suggest Pui Ching should focus foremost on teaching of ethics then we would not have this trademark issue today. I believe if we do nothing, we will not have that problem either as the name of Pui Ching may not worth anything. What do you all think?