![\"Students](\"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/DSC_0406.jpg\")
<\/a>They held up signs and sang the school song to protest against the decision to join the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), which would allow the school to start collecting fees and cherry pick students from outside its geographical school net.<\/p>\n
Standing at the front was Joy Liu Shuk-wah, a third-year student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an old girl of St Stephen\u2019s. \u201cSt Stephen\u2019s across the generations, let us continue our walk, shall we?\u201d proclaimed Liu as the others followed.<\/p>\n
The march on July 7 proved to be a turning point in the campaign to stop the school from becoming more selective and illustrated the increasing importance of alumni in influencing school policies.<\/p>\n
The alumni movement began to take shape in the campaign against the introduction of a mandatory Moral and National Education (MNE) curriculum last year. In August 2012, the Parents Concern Group on National Education launched a letter campaign encouraging Hong Kongers to write to their respective primary and secondary schools as students, alumni or parents. Of the 5,000 letters that were sent out, 60 per cent were from alumni.<\/p>\n
Alumni concern groups sprang up on social media networks and then formed in person to monitor whether and how their schools planned to implement the curriculum, and to oppose such moves.<\/p>\n
These groups were very different from the traditional alumni associations found at most schools. These usually offer lifelong membership to any graduates of a school and charge either an annual subscription fee or one-off payment. Association committees organise regular gatherings and activities for members, and are mostly seen as social clubs.
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When Tai Lok, a 23-year-old former student of the pro-Beijing Pui Kiu Middle School, formed a national education concern group for the school, he met with disapproval from the school\u2019s official alumni association.<\/p>\n
Tai, who is now studying government and political administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was schooled in the Mainland until he moved to Hong Kong in his early teens. He describes his education as being very pro-establishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard for secondary students to have their own points of view, they\u2019re usually influenced by their environment. Pui Kiu influenced a lot of the students\u2019 [mindsets],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Tai recalls the school often invited guest speakers with pro-establishment backgrounds to hold talks and discussions. \u201cThe most unforgettable one was Jasper Tsang Yok-sing,\u201d says Tai. \u201cHe talked about the shortcomings of democracy. He tried to persuade us that democracy wasn\u2019t always good, that not everyone had to have a vote. It was a big blow to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tai began to think differently when he was in Form Six and entered a writing competition about China\u2019s 1911 revolution. By the time the national education controversy erupted, he had very different views from his school.<\/p>\n
This prompted him to return to his alma mater with some other alumni to hand out leaflets and black ribbons at the school entrance to oppose the subject.<\/p>\n
Both the school and the alumni association frowned on their action. The school suppressed the protest and, in a school assembly, told students their seniors had behaved badly.<\/p>\n
Tai is not surprised. He says the alumni association is very close to the school management. Its events are not limited to alumni. Instead it helps the school to organise tours to the Legislative Council and holds seminars for current students. \u201cFrankly speaking, our alumni association joins hands with the school at all times. It\u2019s hard to be close to the centre of power in the alumni association unless you identify with the school\u2019s beliefs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The Maryknoll Fathers\u2019 School (MFS) Alumni Concern Group also has strained relations with that school\u2019s official alumni association. Matters came to a head when around 40 alumni, including four anti-national education activists, had their applications to join the alumni association rejected in October last year.<\/p>\n
The association explained this was because the recruitment of new members had been suspended pending changes to the group\u2019s constitution. But two of the affected concern group members, Linda Wong Shui-hung and Rock Li Cheuk-yin are unconvinced. They think the underlying reasons are political.<\/p>\n
Wong, 36, says she did not join the alumni association when it was set up in 2005 because she was unsure of what she could contribute to the school at that point. Now she is established in her career as a barrister, she wants to give back to the school.<\/p>\n
Wong lauds the past achievements of the alumni association, of which Secretary of Security Lai Tung-kwok is the honorary head, in raising funds for the school\u2019s expansion. But she questions the association\u2019s explanations and notes that unlike the alumni concern group, the alumni association is made up of former students who graduated a long time ago. \u201cA healthy and representative alumni association should encompass voices from different generations,\u201d says Wong.<\/p>\n
Unable to make any headway with the alumni association, Li directly approached the school\u2019s sponsoring body, the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. The sponsoring body supervises the school\u2019s Incorporated Management Committee (IMC), which is responsible for school planning, management and formulating education policies.<\/p>\n By going directly to the sponsoring body, Li bypassed the complex hierarchy of the school structure. Unexpectedly, the sponsoring body supported him and even invited him to join the IMC.<\/p>\n Looking back on the long-running dispute, Li says: \u201cI feel like a group of senior successful alumni with high social status are monopolising the MFS Alumni Association.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIn contrast, another activist who has been rejected, Rocky Li adopts a less conciliatory tone. He says the application refusals must be related to the anti-national education stance of a few concern group members, while the other alumni whose applications are on ice have just become embroiled in the dispute. Varsity<\/em> contacted the school for a response but was told the person responsible could not be reached.<\/p>\n