Dr Chan’s Speech in the Inauguration Ceremony of the Yew Chung – Bernard Spodek Scholar
in ECE
Thank you (Dean of the College of Education) Prof. Mary Kalantzis for your warm welcome. It is good to
be back at the University to visit with my mentor and friend, Dr Spodek, and so many others at the
University of Illinois. I am very happy I can be present to take part in the celebration for the Inaugural
Yew Chung – Bernard Spodek Scholar. Yew Chung and Bernard Spodek Scholar is the combination of the
East and the West. I am from the East and Dr Spodek is from the West. The Eastern and the Western
cultures are quite different from each other. For this reason, it is very important that the East and the
West need to have more communications and to acquire deeper understanding of each other for our
global world.
We need to find more opportunities to share, not only the practical experiences of ECE Education on both
sides of the Pacific. We hope these experiences can be accumulated for study and constructing research
and formulating, and later, building theories. These studies help to arouse the interests of the community,
to let the community know the importance of this early age period in one's life. We also have to let the
policy makers understand the importance of this age group of children and ultimately set policies to
safeguard the interests and needs of the children, which in the end is for the benefit of society.
Last but not least, I would like to touch on the topic of teacher training. We need to cultivate talents and
to supply quality teachers to teach our children who are future pillars of our coming world. We need
people who have global visions to train our children to become future leaders and global citizens. Prof.
James Heckman, an economist and 2000 Nobel laureate, did extensive research on the importance of ECE
(such as "Going Forward Wisely" and “Early Childhood Investments Substantially Boost Adult Health".) He
spoke in an international conference last month in Hong Kong, emphasising the importance of sharing
platform and of putting all resources together wisely.
Just to share one of our latest developments in our Yew Chung Community College (YCCC): As it is
commonly known, all governments keep a tight hold on teacher training. Teacher training is only to be
done by the government or government funded institutes, so Hong Kong never granted to any
self-funded, private institution to do teacher training in the past. I am proud that last year, YCCC was
granted the right to offer the ECE HD programme despite the fact that we are a self-funded, private
institution. I can say, up to this day, we are still the only private institution in Hong Kong which has been
given this right. This of course, I have to thank UIUC and my mentor Dr Spodek for the knowledge and
experience I gained while I was a student here.
At the end of the two years, our students would receive a qualified ECE Teacher Certificate which allows
the bearer to teach in 1) Kindergarten 2) Nursery 3) Special Education class. Here I have to thank Prof
Susan Fowler for helping us to develop the part on Special Education.
Today is only the beginning of a very, very long march. I am glad this “Yew Chung – Bernard Spodek
Scholar” goes to Dr Stephanie Sanders-Smith. I understand and happy to know that her interest is in
children's creativity and in improving services for children who are at risk due to poverty. She is also
interested in English as a second language. She is also planning to build up the undergraduate ECE
teacher training programme. I see there are many common interests between YCCC and UIUC. As Prof.
Heckman said, “Use our resources wisely; let's have shared platforms.” I now want to add: share between
the two cultures to bring ECE to an even higher level with a global perspective. I would like to welcome
you all to come to the Asia Pacific – to China and Hong Kong to see and experience the diverse cultures.
Thank you!