Life is not all about getting certificates, says Graceyard Education Centre principal Dr Matthew Lui Yue-chun. He should know because he was once a 'lazy' student who scored zero in the HKCEE in 1991. All he was interested in doing, he says, was completing school and taking up a job as an apprentice printer.
'One day I asked myself if this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I started thinking about brushing up my qualification by going back to school to redeem myself,' he says.
But there's a big gap between 'thinking' and 'doing'. What finally pushed him into action was when he went for a job interview as an office assistant. The prospective employer looked at his results and asked: 'What makes you think I should give you the job?' The degrading experience made Lui realise he needed to make some big changes in his life.
'I once dreamed of becoming a teacher, priest and social worker, but then I couldn't even get a job as an office assistant. I had to pull myself together,' he says.
But the zero was not going to be a setback for him. It would serve as a wake-up call. Filled with determination to achieve his original goals, Lui attended night school and retook Form Four. He scored good results.
'I decided to become a full-time student when I reached Form Five. I was really devoted to studying. I went to tutorial classes for all the six subjects that I took in the HKCEE. I was extra attentive in class. I recorded all the lectures on cassette tapes and listened to them,' he says.