To some members, Tsoi Heung Sang (蔡香生 '59) was a fellow schoolmate. To many others, he was a teacher as well. Mr. Hinton remembers him as one of the most outstanding students from QES. Indeed, Tsoi Heung Sang was a very gifted child, excelling in many subjects, arts as well as science - all this while actively involved in student leadership and extra-curricular activities.
Tsoi Sir (as he was known to his students) has been involved in education all his life since leaving QES in 1961 and finishing further education. He returned to his mother school as a teacher in 1967 for a few years, then went on to teaching other teachers in various government institutes. In 1996, QESOSA Secondary School was started and the following year, he left government to fully devote himself to the affairs of QESOSA Education Promotion Organisation Ltd., the oversight body for all QESOSA schools.
Vivie Pao (鮑媺媺'62) conducted an email interview with him recently which provides us with more insight into our alumnus/teacher.
Tsoi Heung Sang (5th from left) in a group photo of Form 2A boys in 1956.
Teaching in QES
Q. When you were a wee little lad during your first year at QES, did you already know that you would one day choose education as your career?
A. I joined QES in Form 2. Could not quite remember what I hoped to eventually do at that time. Probably too small to tackle such big issues :) What I do remember is the time when I was about Form 4 or Form 5. Two interesting teachers of English --- Mr. Alfred Ling and Mr. George Ramage had diametrically different plans for my future. That was the time when we had to begin to make choices --- science or arts. Mr. Ling spoke to me many times, trying to encourage (or persuade?) me to imagine some future career as a nuclear physicist (that was the pinnacle of science at the time). Mr. Ramage spoke to me many times too, trying to convince me that I should pursue the arts and perhaps someday excel as an actor or writer.
Torn between two (to me) equally glamourous future existence, I brought up the subject in a very informal discussion. What a schoolmate said after hearing me out was perhaps the beginning of a notion of being a teacher. She said : "Your name does not sound like a scientist nor an actor nor a writer. It sounds more like an educator!" I can still vividly picture the scene --- it was on the ground floor just outside the doorway which leads into the walkway outside the physics lab. Yes, I remember it well, the environment, the schoolmate's uniform, even the words uttered --- except for one vital detail, I can't remember who she was! :(
Drama was one of Tsoi Heung Sang's many passions. Here he is in 楚歌 (Song of Chor)
Q. Did any of the QES teachers in your student days influence your decision to become a teacher?
A. I don't really know. I suppose I must have been influenced in more than one way by more than one teacher. I have been asked similar questions before, and have searched deep down into my "soul". Couldn't locate any former teacher who influenced me that way. But I can think of a number of qualities scattered amongst the many teachers --- hardworking, patient, knowledgeable, witty, humane, dramatic, forceful, demanding, non-compromising, ....
These are qualities that I appreciated and even admired. But I cannot say that these qualities made me want to become a teacher. In fact, now that I am (much) older, I can understand that a group of teachers --- like a group of any other kind of people --- would include the good, the bad and the in-between. It embarrasses me to say that it was the (probably small) group of "bad" teachers who motivated me. I can recall one evening at the school camp (I was then probably halfway through my undergraduate studies) when I had the camp bed next to Mr. Hinton's. I told him that I had more or less made up my mind to be a teacher, and that it was because I wanted to be much better than some of the other teachers I had encountered before.
Q. When did you start to teach at QES and how long were you there? Which subject(s) did you teach? Can you share a few memorable incidents from that time?
A. I went back to QES in 1967 as a teacher of lower form General Science and higher form Physics. I stayed in QES until the summer of 1972 (when I was sent by the Education Department to pursue a one-year course in Manchester, England).
Many things happened during those years. The pleasant memories would include the achievements of my students in public exams, the staging of really high quality drama productions, and watching children grow up and mature. On a more personal note, those were the years when my daughter and son were born (1969, 1970). Becoming a parent added meaning to the task of being a teacher.
Those were also the years when I made some lasting friendships, including Miss Chen who later became Mrs. Mak and is currently the Principal of QESOSA Secondary School.
Tsoi Sir, as he was known, (4th from right, front row) in a group photo with Class of U6A in 1970
Q. Where else did you teach besides QES?
A. I started my teaching career in 1965 at King's College. In those days, government school teachers were posted to whichever school the Education Department wanted. We did not have any say. I was fortunate to be posted back to QES in 1967. As I said, I did not have any control over postings, but I suspect that it was Mr. Hinton who pulled some strings to have me back. But I only taught at QES for 5 years, and was "posted" to England to learn how to train teachers. I guess it was because I showed interest in the continued development of teachers, and was keen to improve teaching methods as well as curriculum content. It was in 1966 that I participated in the establishment of the HK Science Teachers' Association, and had been involved in its work since. HKSTA eventually changed its name to HK Association for Science and Mathematics Education, and is now the largest professional organisation of teachers in Hong Kong.
After my year of training in England (1972-73) I was posted to Sir Robert Black College of Education (SRBCE) where I changed overnight from a teacher of secondary school students to a teacher of teachers. I taught Philosphy of Education, Educational Psychology, and Research Methods & Statistics. That perhaps was the reason why I became involved in the founding of the Hong Kong Educational Research Association.
By 1977, I was asked to start a new Department at SRBCE which later on became known as the Department of Educational Technology. I taught Teaching Methods, Learning Strategies, and introduced the use of computers in education in Hong Kong. So, I became. involved in the founding of the Hong Kong Association for Computer Education.
In 1983, I was again posted, this time to Northcote College of Education where I headed their Dept of Ed Tech until 1987 (except a short spell as Vice Principal of the Technical Teachers' College).
In 1987, I was posted again, this time to Headquarters to start the HK Teachers' Centre. In 1992, I was "on loan" to the new Hong Kong Institute of Education to help with the merging of Northcote, Grantham, Robert Black, Technical Teachers' College and the Institue of Language in Education and the building of a new campus in Tai Po.
In 1996, we started the QESOSA Secondary School. I asked for early "retirement" from public service (which had to be one year advance notice). In May 1997 (my 55th birthday), I officially left public service and joined the school as a "full-time volunteer".
The QESOSA Schools
Q. I know the QESOSA has started 4 different schools and we are so very proud of its accomplishments. Is QES the only school in HK that spawned daughter schools?
A. No. Actually, we ventured into this much later than some of the others.
But then, some of the other associations were tertiary (university and college) alumni. None (as far as I know) has the full range from Kindergarten, to primary, to secondary. And definitely no other alumni association has schools at all 3 levels in the same area (all ours are in Tin Shui Wai, N.T.)
1992, we started our primary school (am and pm).
1993, we started our Kindergarten.
1996, we started our secondary school.
1999, our am and pm primary schools became 2 whole day schools.
Tsoi Sir in front of a portrait of him painted by a QESOSA Secondary School student.
Q. QESOSA has already founded its own primary and secondary schools, so the logical question would be - will it found its own university?
A. No. Hong Kong does not have the right climate for private unviersities. Not yet, anyway. But when we changed the name of the school sponsoring body (that is what we are, in the eyes of the Education Department) to QESOSA Education Promotion Organisation, we had the notion of venturing further into the field of education. We could provide other educational services --- publishing education books, educational research findings, school curriculum material; take up consultancy work for government and educational bodies; sponsor public lectures and seminars on education; offering adult courses for the community (e.g., parent education, computer literacy, even school curriculum material to help adults understand what their children are learning these days); running remedial and enrichment programs for students, etc.
Q. When you look back over the past 40+ years, your career and perhaps even your personal life have been inseparably linked with QES. I dare say not many people have derived so much satisfaction from such an incredible journey. Your experience is one to be envied by all QES alumni.
A. Yes. I do have many links with QES --- as a student from 1955 to 1961, with brothers and sister continuing until 1968, with me returning as a teacher 1967 till 1972, and then as a parent from 1983 to 1989, as a member of the. QESOSA school board from 1992, ... and now continuing as a full-time volunteer "Deputy Principal". It has been a fulfilling journey so far. And I have much to be thankful for --- my teachers, my schoolmates, my colleagues, my students, my family, ....
Tsoi Heung Sang with wife Lai Yuet Sum '59 (far left) during a recent visit to Bay Area. Vivie Pao '62 (2nd right) is the interviewer who contributed to our story. Jo Pak (Josephine Wu) '62 is at far right..