Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of all the teaching staff and students, I would like to extend my greetings to all of you for coming to the Wai Kiu College Annual Speech Day 2006/2007. Your presence today is indeed an affirmation to the fruition of the efforts we all had made.

Since the handover in 1997, I have been monitoring the progress of this school. Wai Kiu has been striving for better education, so as to make students enjoy learning and manage good learning skills as well. Not only have we been providing them with extra-curricular activities to cultivate them with better communication abilities but we have also made revolutionary arrangements in the curriculum, such as teaching Chinese subjects in Putonghua, as well as splitting classes in English lessons and teaching jewelry knowledge. We also introduced enrichment and remedial classes. All this was to implement sharpening of our students’ edges. I would like to share with you not just the success in the aspects I have mentioned just now, but also the credits I would like to give to all the staff for the effort they have made, especially in the areas of cultivating students’ morals, which is the most important aspect in the course of education.

It takes a lot of time and patience to bring up a person than anything else. It is much harder to cultivate students’ morals than to their abilities. Yet, it is the vital aspect we should never overlook in the course of education. We as one of the teaching teams know it well that their morals are the key of their well being in the future. Without morals, one would easily become a lost sheep in the world full of temptations. I think you all are well aware that it is just like the connection between Hong Kong’s stability, without which we would not have had she turned into such a thriving city.

‘Be with perseverance, courage, loyalty and diligence.’ With this motto, we have been determined to cultivate students’ moral sense. In order to achieve this, we must first work on their ambitions, insight and sense of belonging. Those with ambitions are clear about their goals and thus become loyal to what they want to achieve. As loyalty is one of the foundations of Confucian thoughts, we in all these years have always been grasping every opportunity to teach them the importance of it, especially in Chinese lessons, in which students have abundant chances to encounter Confucian thoughts.

It is also so obvious that we cannot only count on the lessons given by teachers. The importance of getting students involved should not be overlooked. Experience develops insight. For this reason we encourage students to do voluntary work by setting up a committee. We hope they can broaden their horizons and learn how to get along well with others in a loving and caring way. In order to facilitate this, we have organized various exchange programs in alliance with other overseas institutes as well as high schools in the motherland. We strongly believe that voluntary work experience gives students an insight into what a meaningful life is, so they can develop a diligent mindset.

To foster courage and perseverance, we need their sense of belonging. This is brought about by perception and the identities of their own. Identity drives them to persevere, and to strive towards their goal for the sake of their home country. So we have paid our greatest effort to show them what China is like nowadays to cultivate patriotism.

Although students in Wai Kiu College are not among the elite list in the perception of the general public, with the efforts of all the staff here we have taught them to be responsible and reliable individuals. The reputation we all have been striving for among the community affirms not only that our efforts are not in vain, but also that the role which Wai Kiu College has been taking in educating role models for the city and for the country, along with the spirits of educational reform.

May I here once again give all my gratitude and blessings to all of you staff for your contributions. And I wish all secondary 5 and secondary 7 students a bright future. Thank you.