Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the 46th Annual Speech Day of the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School today (November 24):

Dr Yuk (School Supervisor of the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School, Dr Alice Yuk), Mr Chan (Principal of the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School, Mr Chan Ka-yun), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, parents, teachers and students,

     It gives me great pleasure to join you at the 46th  Annual Speech Day of the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School to share the joy of the graduates this year.

     Founded in 1970 and guided by the motto "The Truth Will Make You Free", the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary school is committed to inculcating in its students the valuable qualities of a "LAMWOOER", i.e. Leadership, Ardour, Modesty, Wisdom, Optimism, Originality, Empathy and Responsibility. The school is devoted to providing students with all-round education with a wide range of learning experiences, equipping them with necessary skills and instilling in them positive values and attitudes.

     This echoes well with the vision of the current-term Hong Kong Special Administration Region Government. We believe that talent is the most important element in Hong Kong's continued development and education is the key to nurturing talent. Government expenditure on education is therefore the most meaningful investment for our future development. The sound education infrastructure, renowned universities and outstanding research personnel in Hong Kong help cultivate our future generations and train talents from other places.

     To this end, the Government has attached great importance to strengthening support for schools in life planning education. We have set up the Youth Development Commission under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary for Administration to strengthen coordination within the Government and reinforce our connection with the next generation and relevant stakeholders to address issues of concern to young people. In particular, it gives specific attention to issues on youth education, career pursuit and home ownership as well as the participation of young people in politics and their engagement in public policy discussion and debate.

     To strengthen life planning education for secondary students, we have introduced the Career and Life Planning Grant for schools to enhance the capacity of their teaching team responsible for life planning education so as to take forward comprehensive life planning education and career guidance service. We also offer the option of turning this Grant into regular teaching posts and for enhancement of online resources and establishment of district-based development networks.

     From the 2019/20 school year onwards, we will further offer a new recurrent Life-wide Learning Grant for schools to organise more out-of-classroom experiential learning activities covering various curriculum areas, such as humanities, STEM education, physical and aesthetic development, and moral and civic education. Activities like community service, field studies, exchange activities outside Hong Kong and workplace experience will also be provided to students to strengthen their whole-person development.

     To provide career exploration activities and work experience opportunities for students, the Government has introduced the "Business-School Partnership Programme" which has attracted over 300 enterprises to join the programme, offering more than 3 600 work experience activities that benefited 930 000 students. In addition, we launched the "Work Experience Movement" in the 2016/17 school year, attracting more than 200 business and community organisations to offer over 3 000 work experience places across 30 trades and industries to broaden the horizons of students and assist their future career planning.

     We will continue to perform the role of "promoter" and "facilitator" in encouraging more business enterprises to join hands with the Government to help nurture our next generation. A youth mentorship scheme named "Life Buddies" has been launched since October 2015 to promote mentoring culture in the community and through which helps young people improve life skills and exposure, develop a vision for future and make preparation for achieving education, training and career goals. In the 2018/19 school year, mentoring teams formed by 48 Government departments, corporations, and organisations, as well as about 50 individual mentors from the community were matched with 52 local secondary schools.

     The programme "Be a Government Official for a Day" introduced this year under the "Life Buddies" programme offers an exciting opportunity to selected students to shadow a Principal Official on a working day. I am pleased to share with you that, Lam Pui-ka, who is a Secondary 6 student from your school was one of my "shadows" this year. Given the positive response to the programme, the Government will implement the programme again in 2019. I hope more students from the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School will be selected by the scheme again!

     Dear graduates, as you turn a new page of life, it is important that you set clear goals according to your interests and abilities, and strive to achieve these goals. Achieving goals requires both passion and action. Hence, your first step in goal setting and achieving your dreams is that you have to achieve your goal by identifying a critical path to define the key accomplishments along the way and the most important steps that must be taken to realise your goal.

     As President Xi Jinping said, "A nation will prosper only when its young people thrive; a country will be full of hope and have a great tomorrow only when its younger generations have ideals, ability, and a strong sense of responsibility." Hong Kong offers a promising future to young people to unleash their potential in different fields. Apart from our traditional pillars like financial services, trade and logistics, tourism and professional services, the current-term Government has allocated enormous resources to develop new industries such as innovation and technology and creative industry covering design, arts, film, cultural and communications sectors.

     Committing yourself to the path where your strength lies allows you to focus all your energy on the path chosen. While obstacles may arise on the road to success, you may find the path around or through them new avenues to achieving your goal. Obstacles compel you to turn your weaknesses into strengths, instead of shying away from them. All you have to do is to focus on your goal single-mindedly and whole-heartedly, not on the difficulty of getting there.

     On this note, I wish all of our graduates today successful years ahead and the S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School continued success. I am sure that the school will continue to excel and scale new heights. Again, my warmest congratulations to all the graduates and their families and teachers. Thank you.

Ends/Saturday, November 24, 2018
Issued at HKT 17:00

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