Diocesan Boys' School hopes to stop best students defecting to Li Po Chun
An elite Mong Kok boy school's plan to introduce the International Baccalaureate aims to stem a brain drain of its brightest pupils, its principal and an influential member of its school committee said this week.
Liberal Party legislator and Diocesan Boys' School committee member Tommy Cheung Yu-yan said the idea had been floated years ago and aimed to stop the school losing students to other institutions such as Li Po Chun United World College in Ma On Shan.
'Many have left by Form Three or Four,' Mr Cheung said. 'Normally, the best students leave first. You'd think if they haven't left by Form Four, they're going to stay. But then they run off to Li Po Chun after the HKCEE.'
The school last week announced it planned to offer the IB diploma programme as an optional alternative to the local senior secondary curriculum in 2009, and would consider opening its doors to older girls interested in taking the IB.
Principal Terence Chang Cheuk-cheung said the school sent a letter of intent to the International Baccalaureate Organisation, the curriculum's governing body, earlier this year and had met with at its regional office in Singapore. But it would need to apply for formal authorisation as an IB World School before teaching could begin.
Mr Chang stressed the IB would be optional and that not all students would be able to adapt to it. 'The course requires students to be very self-motivated,' he said. 'If they don't have strong self-motivational skills they will find it tough.'