For instance, to save the department money when he served as director of education from 1987 to 1992, Mr Li followed the example of countries such as Japan and the mainland by suggesting students clean classrooms instead of maintenance staff.

'I was nearly murdered,' Mr Li said.

Mr Li will be honoured with a doctorate in education from HKIEd at its graduation ceremony next week in recognition of his leadership in the field alongside HKIEd's other chosen remarkable educators, Angela Cheung Wong Wan-yiu and Lord Stewart Sutherland.

Perhaps most significant to HKIEd, Mr Li drew up a proposal to 'unleash' the five former colleges of education from government control, leading to the formation of the HKIEd in 1994. Mr Li's initiation of graduate posts in primary schools helped change the perception that primary teachers did not need a degree to teach. Nowadays, about 70 per cent of primary teachers hold that qualification.

Other significant issues during Mr Li's career were the implementation of nine-years of compulsory education in 1978, the year prior to his becoming assistant director of education. The changes to junior secondary education, made under the guidance of Murray MacLehose, British governor of Hong Kong from 1971 to 1982, were followed in 1981 by streaming post-compulsory education into academic and technical studies After providing an additional 25 per cent of school places to meet demand for compulsory education, Mr Li turned his attention to what the first cohort of Form Three graduates in 1981 would do next.

Taking into account Hong Kong's status in the 1980s as an industrial centre 'far removed from the financial services centre we have today', Mr Li proposed what he thought the community needed: 60 per cent of students would go on to academic education, while the rest would study at technical institutes and take up apprenticeships.

'From the point of view of what the community needed, it was absolutely the right answer. From the point of view of what the community wanted, it was wrong. It was unpopular with Hong Kong parents. They didn't want to see their 15-year-old sons and daughters go to apprenticeships. That was the biggest agony [for me],' said Mr Li.

Mr Li began to climb the ranks of civil service after working two years as an assistant education officer at a government secondary school, a post he took after completing a postgraduate diploma in education from the University of Hong Kong, where he also earned a history degree in 1959.

Believing he would 'have an opportunity to take a broader view' as an administrator, Mr Li worked in registration before moving onto the then government-run examinations division, for which he served as secretary of the HKCEE for English. In the mid-1970s, he became involved with education planning.

Mr Li, a third-generation Hong Kong citizen who grew up in Wan Chai, was the youngest of six children. He started primary school in the mainland during Japan's occupation of Hong Kong. He recounted that when he returned to Hong Kong he would bring a chair from home to school because there was no furniture. 'Every time people criticised me and the government for not doing enough in education, I always told them this story to show them the zero base we started from,' he said.

Mr Li was proud to be part of what he calls the golden years of civil service during the MacLehose era. 'Like many civil servants at that time, I was working for a better Hong Kong, for better social conditions, for better health [care] for Hong Kong people.'

Mr Li, a life-long bachelor, lives in Happy Valley and continues to serve the community through voluntary work, helping manage several schools and educational bodies as an honorary advisor, including as chairman of the board for Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong in Ma On Shan.

Not wanting to comment on current education reforms, Mr Li offered these words: 'Education is closely linked with the community and how the community will develop, meaning the government has to be careful to keep the development of education not just in step, but one step ahead.'

ANGELA CHEUNG

SHE STARTED her career at a time when there was no equal treatment for women teachers in government schools. But following those days in the early 1960s Angela Cheung Wong Wan-yiu went on to carve out a position as one of the most influential women in Hong Kong education.

Ms Cheung is the antithesis to complacency. She has strived to bring an inclusive, high-quality education to young people of all talents and abilities throughout her 40-year career.

As education services secretary from 1979 to her retirement in 1997 with the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, one of Hong Kong's largest and oldest community-based philanthropic organisations and school sponsoring bodies, Ms Cheung used her administrative skills and teaching background to establish 32 schools. These ranged from kindergartens to government-aided primary, secondary, prevocational and practical schools, including several serving students with special needs.

Be it planning or touring a work site, Ms Cheung was immersed in every aspect of a school's development. This included introducing substantial structural improvements to raise the quality of teaching and to clean up corrupt practices for recruitment and promotions - changes which were not enthusiastically received by schools established prior to her joining Tung Wah.

'It was a very hard time. The changes were introduced very gradually. It was revolutionary. A lot of people didn't like it. They could not do things under the table anymore,' Ms Cheung said in an interview at HKIEd's Tai Po campus.

It was this progressive attitude and determined leadership that earned Ms Cheung the honorary doctor of education that she will receive next week.

Ms Cheung served on numerous voluntary and government bodies. This included being a member of the Education Commission during most of the 1990s, working on the reports three to six that were major shaping forces for Hong Kong's education. She regards the sixth report, which addressed the language proficiency issue, as the most significant.

She also served on HKIEd's council from 1996 to last year and is the founding chairperson of HKIEd School Ltd, a position in which she oversaw the development of the HKIEd HSBC Early Childhood Learning Centre and HKIEd Jockey Club Primary School.

Although from a privileged family, Ms Cheung's idea of education was anything but elitist. She established kindergartens and other schools in housing estates and remote, less-affluent areas of Hong Kong and held after school classes on childcare for parents.

'I like to serve people. It's a commitment to Hong Kong. For women and people growing up like me in Hong Kong, we have been given a lot of chances. That's why I engaged myself in education,' she said.

When she met opposition in the development of the practical-learning CY Ma Memorial College in Yuen Long, for example, Ms Cheung made the school even better for boarding school students: she designed a smarter uniform, hired a tennis coach and hand-picked the bedspreads and furniture to help boost the self-esteem of less academically-centred students.

'I hoped to pass that kind of message to my teachers and principal, not to look down on these students. Everyone has their worth. Children have different talents and not one type of school can fit all students,' Ms Cheung said.

Yet for all of her administrative shrewdness, Ms Cheung's passion for education was rooted in the classroom. She started teaching after graduating from the University of Hong Kong's postgraduate diploma in education, where she studied with Li Yuet-ting. But there were few teaching posts in government schools for women graduates at that time. She turned instead to the aided sector, and first taught at St Stephen's Girls' College, teaching translation and English literature to Form One to Seven students.

Ms Cheung was selected as the first Chinese vice-principal in 1972 at St Stephen's, a post which she held until she began working for the Tung Wah group.

'I am one of the lucky people who happen to love their work. You have a group of young people in front of you. Everyday, every lesson is different. You see them grow up into young adults and that is very satisfying,' she said.

However, Ms Cheung added: 'I had ambition. I wanted to go further. I wanted to do things other than teaching.'

The Pokfulam resident's discerning mind has not yet rested. The mother of three, who joked she was the least educated of her family, serves voluntarily as chairwoman of school council for the Church of Christ in China, which manages 70 schools.

Turning a trained eye to government education reforms, Ms Cheung said: 'I don't think it is all that revolutionary. It's something we have to do, otherwise we are lagging behind in education in the world.'