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KINGSPARK NEWS Club Number: 30119 2005-06 Rotary Year : Issue 23 : 4 June | ||
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is the biweekly bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kingspark Hong Kong Club Website: http://www.rotary3450.org/kingspark-hongkong | ||
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| Chief
Editor : Francis Wann Club Webmaster : John Wan | ||
| Editorial
(Benchmarking)
- By Francis Wann | ||
| District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||
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Benchmarking It has been widely discussed, roundly criticised, and rigorously defended. And last week saw the closing chapter of our series of benchmark tests with the release of the results of possibly the last batch of candidates. It all began eight years ago with the introduction of mother tongue teaching, and with all the good intentions. How this good intention could have exploded into something of a political argument is beyond anyone's guess, but the benchmark test, or the English Proficiency Test for Teachers, has not achieved anything educationally positive. Apart from the fact that we've managed to draw a line between those whose proficiency is considered acceptable and those less so, little seemed to have been achieved. Philip Hoare of the HKIEd admitted in RTHK's Backchat that the benchmark wasn't anything real, and it was an artificial line (24 May 2006). He then went on to argue that it was a means of forcing teachers to pay more attention to their language proficiency, etc, but whether it was introduced in the right way was a political issue. Perhaps when we look at our education landscape in the same fashion, you might as well argue that you need to pass the benchmark to teach maths, science, or what have you. The government was clearly eager to prove its determination to "improve our education", and has picked on the teaching profession to serve its purpose. This could only have happened in Hong Kong, and regrettably to the teaching profession which, ironically, has one of the most powerful unions to represent their interests and rights. Were this to happen in the UK, it could trigger off a national inquiry, and it could be the competence of the education ministers that would be in question. What has happened to the one thousand or so English teachers who failed to make the grade would not bother the EMB which would consider the scheme successful with the majority of teachers achieving level three. But the story does not end here. What is more disturbing is the general atmosphere of acceptance of fate within the profession, and that the public perception of the benchmark test has been changed from resistance to acceptance. Chances are that the test has passed or failed those who shouldn't have, and that would be the real tragedy of our education. The SCMP ran an editorial the day after and suggested we should now move on to other things, like how teaching and learning of English can be further improved, and similar sentiments were echoed in othr leader commentaries. What should we focus on? Research in child development and learning psychology has been with us from the early days of Piaget, and studies on curriculum design and innovation and student counselling have been the major output in our social sciences faculties in universities. There are of course tons of reasons why Johnny can't read, and as always, the crux of the problem lies in the policy making process. It's true that a decade ago only 6% of our school leavers went on to do their A-levels, now it's 18%. It's true that today in terms of sheer numbers many more people in the community are speaking at least some English. The Government should not be surprised that despite the overgenerous funding and various subsidies for Chinese-medium schools, the parents are still unmoved in their choice of English schools. And if the Exams Authority is still of the view that our standards have not dropped, go to any schools - EMI schools - and students there can testify how lessons are taught there. Those who still believe that English is widely used in those schools are only fooling themselves. The fact is that we haven't achieved anything and we are now back to square one. Those parents who think that their children are now in the hands of competent teachers should better think twice. All in all, it's nothing more than a political farce. But the damage is done already. | ||
President's
Column Our 12th Anniversary dinner was held at Hotel Miramar on 14th May 2006. Unfortunately, it was Mother's Day and many of our guests could not come. Thanks to all those who came - they must be our good friends. The anniversary celebration started with a regular club meeting, my report, the induction of our new member Andy Leung, and the recognition of Paul Harris Fellows. I like the performance and entertainments of the evening. It was a mix of professional opera singing, the popular singing of my son Vincent and Spark Lam's daughter Joyce, and the one man band Solo Wong. The charity singing by PDG Raymond, DGE Tony and DGN Tony added a lot of colors and warm atmosphere to the evening. Our members were singing and dancing happily after the lucky draw. If we were allowed to play after midnight I am sure the party will continue. I am sure that we all enjoyed the evening very much. I must give my special thanks to PE Patrick and the organizing committee who did an excellent job for the party. IPDG Alexander, Michael Au, Francis Wann and I attended 2 meetings organized by the District and the Employees and Manpower Bureau of the Government in order to organize a Rotary School Partnership programme. The 2nd meeting on 17th May, 2006 was a matching making meeting between 8 Rotary Clubs and 7 schools. We met the Vice Principal, Miss Cheng, of Ho Tung Secondary School ("Ho Tung") in the meeting. IPDG Alexander and I worked on the formation of an Interact Club for the school several years ago, but the project fell through. Unexpectedly, the school and our Club met again in the meeting. We knew that there was a change in the school principal and they were impressed by what our club has done for the youths in Hong Kong, particularly the Model United Nations. We felt that the school and our Club should tie together preliminarily to work on a partnership programme. IPDG Alexander and I had the first meeting with the school on 24th May, 2006 and it was very useful and constructive. The school Principal Wendy Ho presented the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and crisis of the school and in our presentation we told them what we have done for the schools and the young people in Hong Kong. They are very excited with the opportunities which we may offer them. We have invited them to give a presentation about their school in our Club meeting and I am sure that it will be a very challenging project for our club in the future. After the introduction about the need for a project in District 3400 Indonesia in our club meeting and our decision in our Board Meeting in March 2006, it was resolved that our club would join the RC of Jakarta Metropolitan ("RCJM") in a Match Grant Project to provide hare lip operations and cleft plate operations to children mainly on Java Island. The operations will be offered to families in the Java province who cannot afford the medical expenses and the expenses incidental thereto. RCJM will be working together with an organization called Citra Baru Foundation located in Jakarta. This organization has been performing this kind of operations for many years and has the qualified operating and support systems needed in the medical and community fields. Children with this kind of birth defects are marked for life and unable to secure a meaningful and independent life style for themselves, due to the sociological and psychological effects of their physical handicap. The operation will allow them a normal physical appearance and the opportunity of a normal life. Once the operation has been performed on the individual the Foundation will provide post operation support facilities for the patient and the immediate family for one month, if needed. Many of these children come from out town and have to be cared for in Jakarta for some time after the operation. Once this phase is completed, the children can return to their community and there are no further expenses or services required. The estimated medical and post surgery expenses will be around US$500 for each child and our project cost will be around US$14,000, enough for 28 children. The project will be funded by US$4,000 from our Club and the balance of US$10,000 will be funded the RCJM and the Matching Grant. For our share, we have applied for US$1,000 from the District Designated Fund ("DDF") and we have to raise US$3,000 from our Club or from our Paul Fellow donations in the coming year. The Matching Grant Application has been submitted to RI and we have cleared all the queries from RI. The only outstanding in the application is the approval of the DDF authorization in District 3400. After that it will be submitted for the final approval by the Grants Committee. | ||
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June 4th
Everyone in Hong Kong - and possibly elsewhere - remembers June 4th for some reasons. The Democrats have promised to commemorate today with special events and have gone to great length to say that the turnout today ought not be a reflection of what the people really think about what happened in 1989 in Beijing or for that matter what they think about China. I remember organizing a World Environment Day on June 4th. It was a Rotary event and an initiative to support Rotary's "Preserve Planrt Earth" movement (PPE), then just started. We had mobilized 1,000 children to go to the country parks and to draw pictures. We put them on colourful T-shirts with smart Rotary Logo and we gave the same to adults. Those drawings later went before a panel of judges and we had celebrities (including Jackie Chan) invited to a closing ceremony later to give awards to winning entries and during which the PPE messages were further underlined and Rotary's image further enhanced. It was all fun and games. I recently found a few of these T-shirts and I could still fit into them. The colours have faded for some, but the memories are ever so fresh. Such is how the mind could work for us and such is how one can direct the mind to work for causes that would benefit humanity or otherwise. I was in Anqing, Anhui Province, China last week for the kick off of the Hepatitis B Vaccinination Project - a US$314,000 project funded by a Rotary Foundation Major Matching Grant, and District Designated Funds from four districts, US$1,000 each from districts in Malaysia, Taiwan and Korea and the rest from ours. While there, we heard the news of immense destruction and human sufferings caused by the earthquake in Indonesia. I came back to read more emails from Rotarians in Indonesia appealing for help. DG Peter Wan has done well to exercise executive action to wire Indonesia US$20,000 immediately from the district's Disaster Relief Fund. It would possibly be a drop in the bucket, but at such time, every drop counts. It would be nice if our Democrats would divert part of the proceeds raised from donations or sale of articles for June 4th to Indonesia; and as a Rotarian, it falls on us to help our brethren wherever and whenever we can. It doesn't matter how much one gives; just give. | ||
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Views in any article in Kingspark News reflect those of the authors. They are not necessarily the views of the Rotary Club of Kingspark or of District 3450. You are welcome to write to Chief Editor Francis Wann or Club Webmaster John Wan on any topic, particularly in response to articles published in Kingspark News. We would publish all contributions as long as the authors identify themselves, the contents are not offensive or abusive, and would not offend common decency or common sense. You need not be a Rotarian to write to us and you have a choice to withhold your name in the published version. Where the contents make reference to statements or policies of individuals or organizations, we would try to obtain a response from the latter for publication in the same issue if possible. | ||
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Chief
Editor : Francis Wann The Board of Directors President
: Dominic Ko | ||
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