CUHK
News Centre

Twenty three outstanding students of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have been awarded the Scholarship for Prospective English Teachers 2011/12 by the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government, accounting for the largest share of the total 50 awards available to students of various local tertiary institutions in Hong Kong.  The award-receiving CUHK students come from three programmes related to English training or teaching, including English (5 students), English Studies and English Language Education (12 students) and Postgraduate Diploma in Education (6 students). 

One of the scholarship recipients is Miss PATEL Srushti Viresh (year 1, English Studies and English Language Education), an Indian born in Hong Kong.  Instead of sending Srushti to study at international schools, her mother insisted that Srushti should study in primary and secondary schools under the local curriculum to help her better integrate with Hong Kong students.  Although her father is a businessman, Srushti aspires to devote herself to a profession which can help others in a direct manner.  Under the encouragement and impact of her English subject teacher in secondary school, Srushti became determined to become an English teacher at a young age. 

During the summer after completing Form 7, Srushti served as an English tutor for primary school students in an education centre.  She realized that passion was of paramount importance for a teaching career as a teacher should give encouragement to students to help them build up confidence.  The teaching experience reaffirmed her determination to become an English teacher.  She is planning to teach in Hong Kong for the first few years after graduation and then to serve as a volunteer English teacher in underprivileged areas of India, as a contribution to her motherland.      

Srushti’s classmate, Miss Chan Woon Ting Claudia, is another scholarship recipient.  Claudia wished to become a teacher when she was a kid.  As Claudia is the only child in her family, she always played teaching with her dolls in her childhood.  She particularly likes teaching primary students and hopes to help them improve their English as well as provide guidance for their personal growth.  She once taught a secondary student with emotional illness.  In order to arouse his interest in learning, she tried to teach him through drawing which was his favourite hobby.  Claudia felt greatly satisfied with the effectiveness of her teaching and the improvement of that student in learning. 

Claudia very much admires Ms. Yum, her Chinese language teacher in secondary school, St. Mary’s Canossian College, who manages to strike a balance between work and family with her high efficiency and good time management.  Ms. Yum always tries to know more about her students through their weekly journals and provides them with proper counselling.  Her positive attitude and patience at work have set a good example for Claudia to follow.  

The Scholarship for Prospective English Teachers is set up by the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government as one of the measures to enhance the professionalism of English teachers in Hong Kong.  It aims to attract students proficient in English to pursue relevant local bachelor’s degree programmes and/or teacher training programmes which will qualify them to become English teachers on graduation.

Local scholarship recipients are each awarded an amount of HK$50,000 per academic year.  The Scholarship is tenable for the normal duration of the study programme subject to satisfactory academic progress.  Recipients need to undertake that they would teach English full-time in primary or secondary schools in Hong Kong after graduation.