School for scandal

IT IS ONE OF the most modest schools in Hong Kong, and few outside of Lamma Island know of its existence.

Just 140 children are educated in its six spartan classrooms. Unusually for a local primary, it has attracted a smattering of expatriate children over the past two decades. And, despite the school's simplicity, children are able to do things few others in Hong Kong are - they can play in surrounding woodland and happily walk to school alone from their homes, often just yards away.

With its small classes and rural setting, Northern Lamma School could be one of the best primaries in Hong Kong. But for years, families on the island have bypassed it in favour of what they see as better education in Hong Kong Island.

This month, however, the school that has long been a backwater has been under the lights with its transformation into an battleground - one with its roots in the type of community strife rarely seen in Hong Kong, because few people have the privilege of living in small, tightly-knit villages.

The drama over Northern Lamma School is being played out by a complex cast of characters, including a principal who was sacked by her supervisor and then reinstated by the Education Department; the supervisor who was then himself sacked, and two government officials who lost their positions on the school's management committee.

Centre-stage is well-known local building contractor Chau Kim-hung - the former supervisor - who sparked the latest crisis by sacking Jenny Yuen Chun-ni, the principal.

Mr Chau is from a family that has lived on the island for more than four centuries, and in this imbroglio he is supported by most of the teachers in the school, many of whom have taught there for decades.