Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fan, the civil servant who heads Hong Kong's education system, is typical of many an official in the SAR's administration. She spent years hopping between diverse departments and responsibilities, from housing and land supply to transport to security - among many others - before taking charge of education and manpower.
But unlike most civil servants, she has a particular passion for the challenge she faces, as acknowledged by the children who penned the accolades now framed in her office: 'Pioneer of Reform' and 'Model of Education'.
With all her moves, Mrs Law only ever requested one transfer, and that was to the Education and Manpower Bureau. That was more than a decade ago and her request was turned down. Last July, however, her wish was finally fulfilled: now, as the bureau's secretary, she is tasked with implementing the most far-reaching reforms of Hong Kong's education system has yet attempted.
The challenge this had posed, she said, had been the greatest she had faced in her career. 'In housing you can spend money and you will have beautiful, quality houses,' she said, while the strike threat by China Motor Bus drivers she faced as Transport Commissioner in 1997 was a short-term crisis. 'But for education, it is everybody's business. We have to network the entire community to change the mindset,' she said. 'Nothing is more important.'
Mrs Law, 47, is one of Hong Kong's most senior female officials. But her interest in education stems from an experience she has in common with most women of her age in Hong Kong: as a mother. Like many a parent, she can recall sitting long into the night with her children overseeing homework and drilling for the next day's dictation test or exam. Today, she is determined to free all Hong Kong children from the 'pressure cooker' system that her family experienced. 'I was so fed up with the rote-learning and the repetitive type of writing,' she said.
Her response to her frustrations are well known. She removed her children from the local system when her eldest son, Boniface, was nine, a move for which she was much criticised, given her current role as education chief.
She went to Harvard University to study for her Master's in Public Administration, taking her children and entering them into American private schools. When she returned to Hong Kong, she sent Boniface and his brother Randolph to English Schools Foundation primary and secondary schools rather than back to the local system. Now they are studying in the United States, in high school and university.
