BEIJING'S first international school enrolling students from Hong Kong is likely to admit its first batch of students this September. The Hong Kong-based Yew Chung Education Foundation, which already operates education services here in the territory, and in Shanghai, was allocated a piece of land in Ye Jong, a suburban in Beijing by the Municipal Government last year, to develop an international school for young children from all over the world, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The Yew Chung Beijing International School will be the second school in China run by the Hong Kong-based foundation. It first extended its service to China in 1993, when the Shanghai Municipal Government invited it to set up a school in the city to help the development of foreign investment. The Shanghai school now has 350 pupils. 'This school is going a long way towards solving the problem of many expatriate families moving to work in Shanghai, whose children have no schoolsto go to,' Yew Chung Education Foundation development officer Lorna Gomes said. Last year, the foundation was invited by the deputy mayor of Beijing to start a similar service in the capital, and granted permission for a 16-hectare site for the school. Building of the school is likely to take about three years, so the Beijing Municipal Government is considering using an existing school as a temporary home. The school was hoping to admit its first batch of about 300 students at the temporary campus this September or, at the latest, in September next year, said Ms Gomes. The Beijing school will cater for up to 1,500 pupils when completed. Courses from the primary level up to the third form will place an emphasis on enhancing a student's all-round development and their understanding of different cultures. 'The school will focus on combining the best parts of Eastern and Western values and cultures, and communicating these teachings to the children by means of a specially designed curriculum,' Ms Gomes said. 'We want to prepare our children for the influx of [workers to China] in the 21st century, so they are able to deal with people of different nationalities, cultures and customs.' The school is going to put equal emphasis on both English and Chinese languages. Ms Gomes said the blending of cultures from both the East and West would help develop a student's own potential and personal skills. The foundation, which was set up in Hong Kong in 1932, is already running multi-level education programmes in the territory, including an infant and toddler learning programme, children's house and kindergarten, and an international school in Kowloon Tong.
