In the afternoon of June 5 (Thursday), I attended the Closing Thanksgiving Mass of  Poo Ai Catholic Primary School, signifying official closing of the school on August 1.<br/><br/>
Poo Ai Catholic Primary School was founded by the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM) in 1959 and was taken over by the the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong in 1984. I was the first supervisor of the school after being taken over by Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. I was succeeded three years later by Rev. John Kwan. Owing to the insufficient number of students, the Education Bureau (called the Education and Manpower Bureau then) stopped assigning Primary 1 students to the school in 2006. Next year, all Primary 5 and 6 students will continue their studies at the Oblate Fathers Primary School in To Kwa Wan.  <br/><br/>
At the Homily, Cardinal Joseph Zen affirmed the responsibilities and contributions of the school in the Hung Hum district in the past forty nine years and today it completes its mission in history.<br/><br/>
Earlier that day, I was invited to attend as one of the officiating guests at the joint graduation ceremony of the St Margaret’s Co-educational English Secondary and Primary School and St Margaret’s Girls’ College, Hong Kong.<br/><br/>
The school was founded in 1964. Eddie Lei, one of the co-founders, said to me, “After graduating from the University of Hong Kong, I thought managing school is a money-making business. Working with three of my school-mates, we rented a commercial building to start a girls’ college. We pick St Margaret as the name of the school because of my Catholic background.” He honestly admitted that in the early years, the school was operated in a commercial style. Even though, their success lied in their spirit of education provision and excellent leadership. He added, “the Board of Directors changed to a non-profit organization in 1998 and uses the money earned to pay back to the society.” <br/><br/>
After years of hard working, they successfully applied to become a direct subsidized school in 2000. At the same time, the Education Bureau gave them, for free, a new school premises with a building cost of over one hundred million dollars.<br/><br/>
This private school employs “elitism” whereas the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong employs universal education basing on “teaching without distinction”. However, no matter which system is employed, one cannot disregard the team spirit.