Speech by Permanent Secretary for Education at Award Presentation Ceremony for the Campaign on “Promoting Positive Values and Attitudes through English Sayings of Wisdom (SOW)” 2023/24

Dr Anissa Chan, distinguished guests, principals, teachers, parents, students, ladies and gentlemen,

   Good afternoon.  Welcome to the Award Presentation Ceremony of the Campaign on “Promoting Positive Values and Attitudes through English Sayings of Wisdom (SOW) 2023/24” organised by the Education Bureau (EDB).  First of all, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to all the awardees who have exhibited remarkable talent.  Our tribute also goes to principals, teachers and parents who have helped nurture our fine young persons with a caring heart.  Your unwavering support and guidance are at the core of their greatness.

2.   As an international city, Hong Kong has been equipping our students with biliterate and trilingual language skills as well as the ability to thrive in a multi-cultural environment.  Both Chinese language and English language are our official languages.  Our focus is not mainly about language skills per se.  We attach great importance to “VASK”.  Value and Attitude are invariably more important that Skills and Knowledge.  That is why the EDB has been striving to develop students’ English language skills and cultivate proper values and attitudes through connecting English Language education with values education, and arranging a variety of cross-curricular activities and competitions.  The SOW Campaign in the 2023/24 school year, featuring the overarching theme of “In Love We Share, In Love We Grow” and the six sub-themes “Love Our Country”, “Love the Community”, “Love Our Family and Friends”, “Love Myself”, “Love Learning” and “Love Nature”, continues to serve as a platform to sustain the growing impacts of building a positive school culture and engage students in exploring the various manifestations of love across different dimensions.  We hope to sow in our students a deep sense of gratitude, a relentless pursuit of excellence, a proactive attitude as well as an affection for and sense of belonging to our country. 

3.   In the last school year, more than 44,000 students from about 650 primary and secondary schools took part in the seven activities and competitions organised in the SOW Campaign.  Not only were students’ English learning experiences enriched, but their power of positive thinking was also enhanced.  It is truly amazing to see our bright young students to be so skilful and creative in using English language and multimodal representations effectively to illustrate what ‘Love’, the overarching theme of the Campaign, means to them.  This has been an incredibly challenging task for our adjudicators to select winners.  My gratitude goes to all the professional adjudicators for the time and support they have generously given.

4.   In the 2024/25 school year, we have reached an important milestone – the fifth year of the SOW Campaign.  The EDB will continue to foster in our younger generation proper values and attitudes as well as sharpen their English language skills by organising a range of reading activities with the overarching theme “SOW the Reading Seed – Inspire and Be Inspired” and four sub-themes “Resilience”, “Empowerment”, “Appreciation” and “Delight”.  Reading is an important channel for people to acquire knowledge, gain wisdom and cultivate virtues.  Not only does it help you develop language skills and positive thinking, but it is also serves as a way to relax and reduce stress.  Young people are the future pillars of Hong Kong.  They are our key asset that drives the long-term development of our society and our country.  We hope to see our students taking pleasure in reading, embracing the infinite horizon brought by reading and engaging in a life-long pursuit of knowledge that is interlocked with their reading journey.  Dear students, I encourage you to seize every opportunity that comes your way by reading more, writing more and imagining a bigger world.

5.   In closing, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all stakeholders involved – our parents, schools and the wider community.  Your dedication and collective efforts in shaping our students into compassionate, responsible and capable individuals are truly admirable.  I am confident that the values and skills gained through the SOW Campaign will empower our students to achieve even greater success in the future.  Let us get inspired and learn English through Sayings of Wisdom!  Thank you very much.