In 1965, when Po Yan Catholic Primary School opened its doors in Tung Tau public housing estate in Wong Tai Sin, its surroundings were far from the safe environment every parent envisages for their child.
With gangs of triads running rampant in the nearby mainland-controlled Kowloon Walled City, the school faced the unusual dilemma of operating in a British colony beside a crime-ridden neighbourhood where local police had no power.
'It was a very dangerous place,' said Sister Rosa Smets, who has been a permanent fixture at the school from day one. 'Some teachers used to have things stolen by people who used to run into the Walled City and disappear. You couldn't go in there after them. Even the police couldn't go in. I remember some local police being captured and held there. They had to be rescued.'
A place where dangerous criminals wreak havoc, only to flee behind walls protected by another state, may resemble the script of a futuristic movie. But for the residents of Tung Tau estate, many of them poor mainland migrants, the challenge of finding a school for their children was all too real.
For many, Po Yan provided the solution.
Run by the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and built to cater for the public housing community, Po Yan broke with tradition by becoming the first estate school in Hong Kong to be built on the ground floor. Until its opening, estate schools commonly operated in the only available space - the roofs of public housing buildings.
