Q&A | Fr. Athanasius Chan: Future Saint Paul School director | New principal of St. Paul to focus on fostering Catholic values

Saint Paul School is set to focus on nurturing students’ character and promoting Catholic values within the school’s teaching and learning environment this new academic year.

The school, which has fully embraced e-learning, will be directed by Fr. Athanasius Chan, as its current principal Fr. Alejandro Salcedo is set to step down in September after heading the school for 21 years.

Fr. Chan has been with Saint Paul School for nearly 10 years as a chaplain, holding other duties with student services, such as overseeing school’s clinic, library and religious department.

Speaking to the Times, Fr. Chan said that he will focus on promoting Catholic values in the school’s environment in a bid to provide a higher level of service to students.

Currently, the school has some 3,000 students, along with 350 staff.

Macau Daily Times (MDT) – As the new principal of the school, what are your plans and visions for this upcoming academic year?

Fr. Athanasius Chan (AC) – I will not implement many plans or big changes during the first year of the school. There are some things that take time. St. Paul is a Catholic school, thus it is based on the gospel of Jesus. He is our good example, so my goal and vision is to look at how Jesusserved those who were around him during his time. For me, education is like service. We serve our students; likewise, we also serve the parents and our community.

MDT – So the school will first focus on nurturing Catholic values amongst its students?

AC – Yes, that is my major concern. Nowadays in different careers, especially in a small city like Macau, we always talk about providing the best services to the people. But education is not like any other career, it’s really something very dedicated. We understand the theory very well but to put it into practice is a big challenge.

MDT – How do you plan to provide the best kind of education services to the students?

AC – That is the main goal that we cannot forget. We will continually improve the teaching and learning environment. We try our best to provide the best place for teachers, staff and students, and that is an ongoing action that we need to do.

I already mentioned to our senior managers, even some of the staff and teachers that they should be the ones to serve and provide the best services to students and parents.

But we can only guarantee the quality of our service based on ourselves. [We] have to continually develop ourselves across two aspects: your profession as a teacher and also your own character. If we guarantee these two things, then it means we can deliver the best quality of our service to the students and teachers.

MDT – The school has fully implemented the ICT, making the school “paperless.” Is the school continually progressing in this system?

AC – Since 2011, we already implemented these ICT [measures]. Today we can say that we are more mature about this. In the future, we will continue to provide the best technology for our students, meaning that we will provide the best services and bring more convenience to our teaching staff, students and parents. We know that ICT is a future education type. We will continually make our things more innovative. [With that], they will easily adapt themselves and be more confident in the society. Our goal is to help our students develop a good foundation so they will be competitive in the market in the future.

MDT – During the first quarter of this year, the school received a total of MOP64 million from the Education and YouthAffairs Bureau (DSEJ) Are we seeing an increase in the latest or next quarter to come?

AC – We are surprised that they have supported us a lot for the incoming school year. We’ll do our best to properly use this money to bring out the best in our students, and contribute to the society.

MDT – Fr. Salcedo had previously said that the school will likely soon adapt the 6-6-3 system. Can we expect that in this upcoming academic year?

AC – Yes. We’re moving towards this system step by step. Nowadays, the international community is more concerned with childhood education. We have read many materials on this and we have already prepared something to implement. For the early childhood education, it’s really important for us to make a good foundation for them. From Primary 4, they will start to use the ICT system, and then in the last three years of their studies, which is Form 3, we dedicate ourselves to help students prepare themselves to enter university.

MDT – How about the new English curriculum?

AC – We have already invited experts from England, with a research team, and they will continue to evaluate the curriculum and help our teachers decide upon and implement a new project. We already have an English project from Kindergarten 1 to Primary 3, so step by step we will fully implement it across the whole school. Some of them have been involved in our school for many years already but starting from September, they [the team] will only take the English project, according to the new school system.

MDT – Are there any plans to increase the number of students?

AC – We don’t have any more classrooms. In fact, we want to have more classrooms. Two months ago, DSEJ asked our school to open more classes, or accept more students, but we cannot make it because there are no more seats, unless we have a new building. My other plan is to provide more functional classrooms both for teachers and students [in a bid to] improve the teaching and learning environment.