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| December 1999 Talent - Creative Projects Under Quality Education Fund By Eva Yim RELATED ARTICLE:
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same section: In October 1997, the Chief Executive announced in his Policy Address the establishment of the Quality Education Fund. With an allocation of $5 billion, the fund provided an effective channel for interesting projects from schools to be funded. To date, over 1,000 schools have received funds to launch projects. St. Mark’s School in Shau Ki Wan was granted $560,500 for its project “Music Forever”. The money was spent in buying the musical instruments and four performances. The four performances were a musical, an instrumental concert for Parents Night, a Christmas concert and a students’ concert. Among them, the musical Oliver, performed on 31 October 1998, was the largest scale. The musical cost about $200,000. Oliver is a story by Charles Dickens about the adventures of a boy of the same name. Oliver was an orphan in 19th century in London. He was poor and starving. Ms Rosalind Chan, the principal of the school, said the musical marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school. The musical took place in the Lyric Theatre of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. As the fees for booking the theatre and setting up the lighting were high, Ms Chan said they overspent the money. “It cost us $20,000 for booking a 4-hour session of the hall to prepare the lighting,” she said. Besides, money was spent in hiring part-time directors, drama instructors and janitors to assist the smooth running of the performance. Students learned how to manage their time. They also made many new friends since the performance involved 500 students from all classes. Said Ms Chan: “They had to mange how to keep pace with studies. It was a lesson of time management. “Students also learned skills such as stage management, singing, dancing, making of costumes, drama skills and backstage organization. Ms Chu Man Fong, teacher in charge of “Music Forever”, said students started practicing in the summer holiday. They had to go back to school three days a week for rehearsals. “It was a test of toughness. They had to devote time to it.” Au Yeung Kwan Pak, who was cast as a street-wise opportunist in Oliver, said he learnt a lot from the musical. “In the past, I was shy and timid to sing even in a karaoke lounge. Now I have the courage to stand in front of many people to perform. “When I acted on the stage, I couldn’t see the audience. I was the only one performing on the stage and the stage belonged to me,” he said. Having reached Grade 7 in pianoforte of the Royal Schools of Music, Au Yeung said the musical also gave him a chance to see whether or not he had the potential to develop in music. Yim Chi Ho, another student in the musical, said it was a special experience that he had never had before. Yim learnt leadership skills through observing the work of the director. Said Yim: “I had a strong feeling that we were a team. I was happy when other actors sang well, but I was nervous when they made mistakes.” Another school, St. Stephen College, has been granted $982,600 from the Fund this year. They set up a closed circuit television broadcasting system. A new channel, “Campus Channel”, was then established. Students produce their own programmes, make announcements, and promote school activities. Mrs. Chung Kwan Kam-sheung, assistant managing director of the project, said students decide the contents of the programmes themselves. “Every Monday morning, there is ‘News In The Week’ from Pearl on air, while on Friday morning we air programmes about local news as well as the news from the world,” Ms Chung said. They also broadcast student productions during lunch periods. Mr. Lai Chun-ming, teacher in charge of the project, said that most of the money was spent on buying the hardware and the equipment for the control rooms and the studio. Altogether they have bought two video monitors, four digital cameras, nine televisions for viewing, three speaker systems and a set of sound amplifiers. Besides, a department of script writing, a production team, a presenter team and a team of artists have been set up. Julio Tsang, a Form 5 student, who wants to be a director in the future, said that producing a programme was not easy. He said, “Before considering what to produce, we have to consider how to produce. “As we are all cubs, we have to try, and everything starts from zero. “I like solving problems and running the channel is an exercise of problem solving for me.” |
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