Date: March 22, 2021

Source: JNU Education Development Fund 

Author: Chen Lian, Su Xingchen

The signing ceremony of Affiliated School of JNU for Hong Kong and Macao Students took place at the Guangzhou Aoyuan Group building on March 21. Participants were representatives and guests from JNU, Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong.

The school was co-founded by JNU, the Hong Kong Victoria Harbour Education Group, the China Aoyuan Group and the Dongguan EtonHouse Education Group. It is a nonprofit international school offering pre-school, primary, junior high and senior high education. With JNU's support, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area base and Hong Kong and Macao's features as its development orientation, the school recruits students mainly from Hong Kong and Macao, with some Taiwanese and children of foreigners in China.

The school's chairman, Guo Zining, Party secretary and CEO of the Aoyuan Group,  said in the welcome speech that the Aoyuan Group had always enthusiastically supported education. Now the company is cooperating with JNU and Hong Kong Victoria Harbour Education to found the Affiliated School as a positive response to what President Xi Jingping advocated in the 40th-anniversary ceremony of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. It follows the guiding principle of President Xi's speech in the ceremony: The pivotal cooperation platform of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao should be made good use of to attract more youths from Hong Kong and Macao to study, land jobs and live in mainland China. By doing so, youths in these three areas could communicate in a more extensive, all-around and in-depth way, and our motherland China would be more united.”

Jinan University, featuring higher education for overseas Chinese, has speeded development of basic education in recent years, JNU Party Secretary Lin Rupeng noted.It established the Affiliated School as an international school symbolizing the direction of development of the  Greater Bay Area. As the first school in the Greater Bay Area providing education for students from Hong Kong and Macao, Lin said, it plays a leading and exemplary role in promoting integrating development of education in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

The school plans to follow the principles of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) from kindergarten through twelfth grade and offers IB+ Hong Kong Macao integrative and creative courses for elementary and junior students. It plans to adopt International+ class patterns for high school students and offers Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) courses, A-level courses and International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme courses for Hong Kong and Macao students.

As the first school in Guangzhou to provide education for students from Hong Kong and Macao as well as the first school in China under the direct guidance of Jinan University, the Affiliated School of JNU, will hold its official opening ceremony in September.