- 在線時間
- 114 小時
- 最後登錄
- 13-7-30
- 國民生產力
- 4
- 附加生產力
- 2
- 貢獻生產力
- 0
- 註冊時間
- 07-12-13
- 閱讀權限
- 10
- 帖子
- 379
- 主題
- 0
- 精華
- 0
- 積分
- 385
- UID
- 171442
 
|
SCMP Aug 7 2009
Is Harrow School for HK aimed at Delta?
Britain's Harrow School, which counts Winston Churchill among its long line of famous alumni, has been chosen to open an international school in Hong Kong.
Harrow International School will operate primary and secondary sections on a 3.7-hectare site at So Kwun Wat, Tuen Mun, in the New Territories, with an initial intake of about 1,200 pupils. Its secondary section would offer space for 290 boarders, according to the school's plan.
A Harrow International (HK) spokeswoman said: "Hong Kong has many international schools and the city has strong ties with Britain. We believe a British curriculum will have a good market here."
The government is pushing to turn the city into a regional education hub, and Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming-yeung said: "I believe it is a step forward for Hong Kong in developing a vibrant international school community attracting students from different parts of the increasingly connected world."
British Chamber of Commerce executive director Christopher Hammerbeck said the move had the potential to expand local international school education into the Pearl River Delta.
Gerald Postiglione, professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, said the Harrow school would help bring in education revenue from the growing ranks of wealthy parents in the Pearl River Delta region. "It's a big market out there on the mainland and even in Southeast Asia," he said.
However, the Harrow spokeswoman said it was too early to say if it would try to tap students from Guangdong because it was not allowed to do so under present government policy.
An Education Bureau spokeswoman said international schools mainly served the children of expatriates in Hong Kong, but could recruit overseas students, although not from the mainland, Taiwan or Macau.
Harrow International already operates schools in Bangkok and Beijing.
Education is one of the six so-called knowledge-based industries Hong Kong should aim to develop, according to a task force chaired by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen tasked with identifying new development directions for Hong Kong.
The Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre - a think tank widely believed to be close to Mr Tsang - earlier released a report proposing Hong Kong develop as an education centre and attract students from the Pearl River Delta region.
Harrow School is one of four operators chosen to run new international schools in Hong Kong. The other three are existing operators. They are the Kellett School Association, the Trustees of the Kowloon Tong Church of the Chinese Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the Hong Kong Academy. Their sites are in Kowloon Bay, Lai Chi Kok and Sai Kung respectively.
The school operators have been granted the sites for nominal rents and must run as non-profit organisations. |
|