Closer links between international and local schools must be developed to help students cope with a rapid change of culture after the handover, a headmaster said yesterday.

Hong Kong International School's headmaster, David Rittmann, said: 'After 1997 I believe the values in our community will gradually shift from the Western ideas of the British liberal democracy to those more compatible to Chinese cultural and political norms.

'While I expect ideas will remain relatively free flowing, their expression must also be sensitive to context. Schools must educate to this reality . . . We must have more interaction with local schools. We have more resources and technology that local schools can't afford, and we must share it,' he added.