To celebrate its 85th Anniversary, Yew Chung International School (YCIS) hosted an education conference “Reinvention - The Future Beckons” in Hong Kong on 16-17 March, 2018. With physical participation of close to 500 staff from YCIS and Yew Wah’s schools across the regions, plus those attending through digital devices, a total of over 1,300 teachers of YC family, from Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tongxiang, Beijing, Qingdao, Yantai, Rizhao, Chongqing, and Silicon Valley in United States, gathered to learn from experts on topics covering Global Competencies*, 21st Century Learning* and Learning Communities*, which are necessary for nurturing future talents. (*See Appendix I) 

The conference featured talks delivered by educational experts, including Prof Nathan Holbert and Prof Stephanie Sanders-Smith from the United States, Prof Bonnie Yim and Dr Natalie Robertson from Australia and Prof May Liu from Taiwan, who addressed and shared the insights on many aspects of education from best practices to the latest application of technology. Through seminars, panel discussions and workshops, teachers would deepen their professional knowledge on topics ranging from play-based learning, multicultural learning environment, to child protection. Respect and believe in the students, regardless of young age, to building a trusting relationship with the teachers, are the crucial bases for advancing onto our open, community and mutually collaborative education approach, while embracing technology, experimental and risk taking learning at the same time. (See Appendix II for speakers’ biographies)

At the opening remarks, YCIS CEO & School Supervisor Dr Betty Chan Po-king addressed the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence,“The theme of our conference is “Reinvention - The Future Beckons”, and it is precisely our call to action on the aforementioned challenge. This is our opportunity to reinvent education, it is the start of a long journey. As we gather here to celebrate our 85th anniversary, we come together to lay the future direction for the education of our children.”

She added, “As AI & Robots become commonplace at home or workplace, we must prepare our children to face challenges of tomorrow posed by the always changing world. The existing pedagogy, methodology and content should be modified to equip the next generation so that they will become capable leaders of tomorrow. Helping students to succeed in public exams is no longer enough. As educators we must go farther than that - we have our children’s lifelong interests at heart, our mission is to ensure that they are armed with all the skills necessary for them to tackle the many challenges during their lifetime.”

By re-emphsising the school motto of YCIS “The Alliances of Science and Technology; Culture and Art; Love and Charity”, Prof Paul Yip Kwok-wah, Chairman of Yew Wah International Education Foundation, highlighted that, “To co-incide with China and the society’s progress and development, we as the biggest non-government education provider in China, strive to uphold the commitment for education and our nation. With the spirit of ‘Glorying the Chinese Nation’ (光耀中華), we bring theory to practice, virtual prototyping to realistic formulation of standards.”

For the essence and role of teachers in 21st century learning, Professor Nathan Holbert from Teacher College, Columbia University, quoting Papert (1980), “We learn best when we have the opportunity to create things of personally value that can be shown or shared.” He added, “It’s about purpose. It’s about seeing the world as a changeable thing. ‘Teaching’ is more about providing guidance and support than it is about telling, while ‘Learning’ is about coming into a personal and concrete relationship with knowledge and things.”

For 85 years, Yew Chung and Yew Wah pioneer in teaching methods and deliver the best education to students, while fulfill the expectations of parents and the society. Providing quality education to over 10,000 students from kindergarten to secondary across 20 locations in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Silicon Valley in the US, we have been raising globally competent and compassionate leaders based on our core values of love, compassion and social responsibility.

Based on the wisdom of our visionary founder, Madame Tsang Chor-hang, we are committed to innovating our educational resources, supporting education professionals and sharing findings with experts and the industry, for the betterment of education development both locally and globally. This conference is another example of our commitment in teachers’ training and progress in education, by addressing the most current topics and issues, to equip our children for the 21st century. With teaching professionals from all of Yew Chung and Yew Wah schools, it reinforces our “Virtuous Circle of Quality Education” - where we nurture, educate and shape the world’s future generations in supportive and vibrant environment from infancy to tertiary.

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About YCIS

Founded in 1932 by Madame Tsang Chor-hang, Yew Chung has provided quality bilingual education to the learners of Hong Kong for 85 years. Originally specialising in Early Childhood Education, YCIS now provides education from early childhood through primary and secondary culminating in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme.

YCIS has expanded beyond Hong Kong and is now established in Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and Qingdao in China and Silicon Valley in the United States, with a total student enrolment of 6,000.

Offering the richness and diversity of both Eastern and Western cultures, YCIS equips children to be bilingual, global-minded and competitive. Students are nurtured with a fully rounded and balanced education that transforms them into globally aware individuals. For more information please visit https://www.ycis-hk.com or our Facebook page.