Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Chuen Yuen College

Chuen Yuen College is a secondary school in Hong Kong. Established in 1969 and located in the Kwai Chung district of the New Territories, the school consists of a 50,000 square foot, six-storey school building and a new wing which was opened in 2004. Facilities of the school include of 24 conventional class rooms, eleven special purpose rooms, an assembly hall that seats a thousand people, and a basketball court.

History


With the number of local school-age children increasing continously, the late Reverend Peter Wong, former General Secretary of The Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China, decided to build a new secondary school in Kwai Chung in response to rising demand for school vacancies. After much planning, an English-language secondary school was built and given the name of Chuen Yuen College, after other schools with the name of Chuen Yuen in the area.

On 18 May 1969, the cornerstone was laid in a ceremony presided over by Professor Yung Chi-tung, president of Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. The first classes were held that September. On 16 November, the school held a public dedication ceremony with Bishop Otto Nall.

Initially, the school only offered the standard Chinese curriculum, but, starting in 1972, it allowed English education students to enroll. In 1973, the school added Hong Kong university preparatory classes and a math/science programme to its offerings. In 1974, it expanded to 24 different classes, offering a standard education programme. Directives from Hong Kong's education administration requiring 9 years of free education for students led the school to expand its admissions in 1976, and in 1978, again in response to government directives, it began offering special education classes. However, in 1985 government funding changed and it began reducing its special education enrollments and increasing the number of ordinary classes.

The school's founding headmaster, Mr Jeung Wan Cha , retired in 1983. Its second headmaster, Mrs Yau Oi Naam , left the school in 1992. The third headmaster, Mrs Lei Sek Yuk Ru , returned to serve in her ''alma mater'', the Ying Wa Girls' School , in 2001; Mr Wong Wai Yiu took over as the fourth headmaster.

Programmes offered and administration structure


The programme offered at Chuen Yuen is roughly the same as in other Hong Kong schools. Outside of the core subjects, it offers classes in fine arts and graphic design, music, home economics, industrial arts, computer skills, physical education and religion, in conformance with public needs. In recent years, it has added to its offerings Mandarin language classes and business administration, accounting theory, travel and tourism education and communications studies, in order to give students more choices. Since its opening, Chuen Yuen has been focusing on offering a holistic education and putting great emphasis on the moral development and spiritual needs of students. The school also encourages its students to participate in extracurricular activities via various programmes.

The school is under the direction of an administrative council along with special committees for education, instructional services, extracurricular activities, religion, guidance counselling, citizenship and moral education, each responsible for the corresponding department and for improving standards in their respective fields. Furthermore, the school has special interest committees such as the information science and technology committee, the teacher training committee, and the parents' support and liaison committee. In 1994, the school also established an association of friends, parents and teachers of Chuen Yuen college.

Trivia


Guests who visit the school would sometimes mistake the name of the school for ''Yuen Chuen'' , which means utterness in Chinese.

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