In recognition of her recent and long-standing achievements and contributions to education, the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) has awarded Dr Betty Chan Po-king, Director of the Yew Chung Education Foundation and Yew Wah International Education Foundation, with an Honorary Fellowship.

In the 1970s, Dr Chan dramatically transformed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) system and introduced an avant-garde education model grounded in bilingualism and co-cultural learning. By abandoning the standard textbooks and examination-based teaching at the time, Dr Chan decided that students should be taught through “play-based” and individualised teaching. To this day, her methods have been imitated and integrated into modern day pedagogy.

Her innumerable achievements and contributions to the school system, both in Hong Kong and abroad, have earned her the respect of many fellow educators around the world, and that of her colleagues in our education group, all of whom Dr Chan acknowledged and paid gratitude to.

Speaking of the success and endowment of Dr Chan’s honorary degree, the HKIEd remarked, “Dr Betty Chan Po-king has dedicated her life to education. Thousands of young minds in Hong Kong and beyond have benefited from her wealth of experience and knowledge of pedagogy, which she has shared with legions of teachers... Despite her heavy responsibilities and demanding schedule, Dr Chan devotes herself to serving education and the wider community.”

Dr Chan humbly expressed her thanks to the HKIEd and her colleagues at Yew Chung International School (YCIS) and Yew Wah International Education School (YWIES) for the decades of work and accomplishments to education. She also shared her vision for the group’s future in the next decade.

“Over the next decade, I hope that our group will firmly establish itself as a globally recognised network of top-quality international schools, with a strong reputation for bilingual and multicultural education. We would like to share our unique philosophy and pioneering educational model more widely, and for it to be adopted by different countries and cultures.”

She added, “Global education should not be confined to international schools alone. All schools should strive to provide the best possible education for the next generation, and at YCIS and YWIES, we will continue to push boundaries, and aim to remain at the forefront of the industry.”