THEY WERE LOUD, proud and undeterred by the late summer downpour. In small groups outside the school chapel, the girls from St Paul's Convent, Causeway Bay, sang, prayed and danced their way through their regular after-school prayer meeting.
Were they practising for a special event? 'No, this is normal for us,' said Eliza Wong Lui Ching-yi, the school's panel head of religious studies. 'They're very dedicated.'
Teachers at schools operated by religious organisations such as St Paul's Convent, run by the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, say they offer a much-needed spiritual dimension to children's education. However, commentators with more secular inclinations think God is playing far too great a role and unduly influencing children's religious beliefs.
Unlike in the United States, where the constitution lays down a clear division between church and state that prevents religious bodies from running publicly-funded schools, in Hong Kong churches of many kinds have been a key driving force behind the development of education.
Nearly every Christian denomination is represented among Hong Kong's school sponsoring bodies; including Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans and Catholics, giving plenty of breadth for views on, among other things; evangelism, creationism, the teaching of non-Christian faiths in the curriculum, sex education, and the religious views of teachers.
Within each denomination, further diversity exists. For example, there are 27 Catholic school sponsoring bodies made up of 25 religious congregations, including the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, plus the charity Caritas and the Catholic Diocese.