I'm not the school principal

I am Fermi Wong. I wish to tell you a story. It took place in 2001. It was not long after I helped find school placements for some ethnic minority children. They did not know Chinese as a language and could not catch up with the others in school for the Chinese class, failing to complete even the most basic homework. I therefore transformed my office into a small tutorial centre, giving supplementary Chinese lessons to about a dozen of primary 4 to 6 ethnic minority children who came after school. Among them was a 6-year-old Nepalese boy who came with some other Nepalese children senior in age and who spoke neither Chinese nor English. He was sweet and well behaved. When I asked, with the other children translating, why he was not in school uniform, He did not say anything. But on the following day, he came wearing a white shirt and grey shorts. I asked him again, what about your school bag? He said he did not have one. So I gave him one as a present. He came in with the school bag on the third day. In there were an exercise book and a pencil case. And don’t you have books? I enquired. So on the fourth day, he had in his bag a few used storybooks. “How come there is no school badge on your uniform” was another of my questions. He did not say anything but continued to come learn Chinese everyday. He always completed the exercises I gave him as homework. Another week was past when a Nepalese man came for me in the class. He introduced himself as the father of the boy and said he wished to see and thank the “school principal” in person for allowing his child a chance to study. Thinking that he might have come to the wrong place, I was about to take him to the school when he uttered my name, “Fermi Wong”. I instantly clarified with him that I was no school principal but a social worker that wished to help ethnic minority children learn Chinese by giving free tutorial classes. The father was surprised at my explanations. If this is not a school then where could the boy have been all these days always since early morning? I told him what I saw over the past two weeks. He listened; much taken aback but soon came to realize what actually had happened. I saw tears running down the face of this man in his thirties. The man had arrived in Hong Kong for about 6 months. He worked in a construction site for more than ten hours a day. His wife was still in Nepal. He did not have any time, nor did he know how, to find a school for the boy. But then one morning, while he was still unsure of what to do, he found the boy was going to school with other children in the neighborhood. The kid came back that evening saying that the school principal had required him to put on the school uniform. With heartfelt gratitude, the father thought his fellow compatriots had helped to secure a school place for the boy. It was at that point that the man came to realize what could have been the story: every morning, his 6-year-old boy would travel from Tsuen Wan where he lived to Yaumatei where the school was with the other children, only to stay and wait for them outside the school till it finished. Every morning, this little boy would leave home at 7 am, and from 8 am to after 3 pm; he would be sitting outside the school waiting to come to my tutorial class with the others. No wonder the boy had told his father that he had to wait for a long time before he could attend classes, and that classes were always short. I listened to the man speaking in tear and my heart was saddened. I was sorry for my misunderstanding and promised to do my best to find the boy a school place. But before long, the man decided to send the boy back to his home village in Nepal where the mother was. I saw this kid again recently. The whole family is going to move to UK. He still does not know much about Chinese but he continues to take me as his school principal. Every youngster I have met in the ethnic minority community has an untold story of his or her own. Every face, every eyesight, every drop of tears, every laughter tells a true story of life and dignity. I have promised myself – I will not again allow any child I know be deprived of the chance of education either because of my heedlessness or as a result of the faulty system