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Huijia School, a Professional Educator Following Education and Market Rules

Apr 18-2013   



 

Reporter’s Note: Chinese education must break the bonds of convention, both public and private schools should stand the test of the market. In view of that, Chairman Wang Zhize of Beijing Huijia (IB) Private School has an answer to the question. “We’re studying how to avoid the disadvantages of both traditional and modern education methods,” he said. “We will stick to our mission of running a new, high-grade and international school.” As for him, to be new means to be innovative, to follow the rules of education and market, and to take a way different from that of exam-dominated teaching pattern. A high-grade school indicates high quality, standards, and efficiency, emphasizing EQ, services, skills, and personality. And Wang believes that an international school should have global vision and introduce international standards of education. By sticking to these principles, seventeen years after its founding, Huijia becomes increasingly popular among parents and students. These are the strategies of the school and also the codes of conduct for all Huijia people.

Shao Ying: I know you’re among the first doing business at Zhongguancun and running a private school in Beijing as well. From 1976 to 1983, you used to serve the army and then studied at Beijing Institute of Meteorology, majoring in radio technology. You resigned from Beijing Huaxia IT Company in 1989 and started your own business. You founded Beijing Huajia (IB) Private School in 1993. Now you’re Changping District CPPCC members, chairman of Huijia Education Institution, chairman and principal of Huijia Private School, vice chairman and executive president of Beijing Huijia Vocational College, chairman of Huijia Kindergarten, and chairman of Singapore Chinese Unite International School. You also manage Huijia Animation Vocational School, China-Australia College Beijing, and Overseas Studies Center and get involved in the entire education chain from preschool to higher education. When you look back at your life road of changing from a senior engineer to the one passionate about and engaged in education, can you tell me what factors helped you make these choices? Do you find your leaning and working experience in the fields other than education helpful and give you more insights?

Wang Zhize: Both my parents are engaged in education and I would say that my choice of running a school could find its root in my family and I had this dream since I was young.

My father, Wang Jiajun, is an experienced educator and still active in the field at the age of 79. He won the Life Achievement Award granted by Beijing municipal government and the award of making outstanding contributions to education in Beijing in three decades since the country introduced the policies of reform and opening-up. He has never left the field and, in his own words, did only three things in his life, to be teacher, bureau chief, and principal. He was the special-grade teacher of chemistry at middle school in Beijing and the city’s Model Worker. He used to be Haidian District Education Bureau chief and the principal of Haidian Teacher Training School, promoting the education of the district and making it a top education base in the country. He retired in 1996 and took the post of principal at my Huijia Private School. He was the only representative of private school taking part in the third National Education Conference.

Today, Huijia is growing steadily by following the established strategies of being a new, high-grade and international school. My father once joked about his will or the mission of Huijia. He said that No. 4 Middle School was a top public school in Beijing and Huijia should top among private schools and win the fame of Eton in China. I know Huijia has a long way to go to be a leading private school in the country and in the world.

I respect education career and my passion for it comes from the family. It’s in my blood. During the years when I worked at companies, I used to think about the nature of education and the proper form of education that can build the best character. I also thought about the role of an educator, the education with lasting effect, and the growing point of a private school in a city where there are numerous private education institutions. I noticed that most affluent parents were disappointed about the exam-oriented education system and looked forward to a different complete education emphasizing practical capacities and creative thinking. They wanted their kids to have the best education but had no other choice. It’s a dilemma for them. By satisfying their needs, Huijia will have a space of development. I investigated many famous schools all over the world and was greatly impressed by their beautiful campuses, profound culture, and inspiring mottoes. After my world tour, I had faith in my choice of running a private school in China. I knew what I wanted Huijia to be, Eton College in China.

Shao Ying: Huijia is a member of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) and adopts international education and management systems. It introduces international curriculum, established long-term partnership with leading education institutions and opened branches in the US, GB, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. Step by step, Huijia is progressing on the way to becoming an international school. In terms of cooperating with the counterparts in different countries, what are the achievements that you’re satisfied with? In colliding with different cultures, what are the problems that you think should be tackled with?

Wang Zhize: Deng Xiaoping, the chief designer of reform and opening up in China, proposed that Chinese education be geared toward modernization, the world and the future, while Huijia is an example of education internationalization. The kindergarten, primary and junior school of Huijia introduce the education concepts of IBPYP and IBMYP. The core of IB is comprehensive learning of knowledge, concept, skill, attitude, and behavior. This is an interesting and diverse process full of funs by combining the education theories and teaching resources in the west and the east and focusing on the integration of different subjects and cultures.

Huijia follows the rules of education and market as well to realize the so-called complete education. At Huijia, we treat every student with respect and they have access to rich cultural resources. Being immersed in the complete education environment at Huijia, the students grow in four fields of basic knowledge, arts, sports, and life. The four fields have the same effect on a student and help to create more harmonious and comprehensive students. The initial goal of Huijia is to create a Chinese private school with international influence. Today, 15,000 people are working hard to fulfill the goal with their determination and commitment.

In all the countries in the world, there are basically two types of schools, public and private. The government guarantees the basic education rights of its citizen and what’s the most important for a public school is to follow education rules so as to realize equal education. While private schools offered choice-based education featuring diversification to satisfy the needs of special groups. So they have to follow both education and market rules. It’s not an easy job, for it’s different from traditional teaching method and requires the recognition of teachers, students, school, and parents at the same time. Although more and more Chinese students and parents accept IB teaching method, Huijia still finds it difficult to find the faculties with international experience.

We all know that Eton College is a world famous private school and no one questions about that. In past five centuries, Eton has produced numerous politicians, economists, and military leaders, including 19 British prime ministers. In recent election, David Cameron, UK's 43-year-old new prime minister, became the youngest one taking the post in two centuries and he is also a graduate of Eton. In his Cabinet, 13 members used to study at the same campus. Huijia has a history of 17 years and started to recruit IB senior students in 1998, producing ten batches of graduates. In 2008, 53% of 140 graduates were admitted by the world top 100 universities; in 2009, the proportion was 55% out of 143; and this year, the number increased by 5 percentage points to 60% out of 102 graduates. IB graduates studying at the world leading colleges help Huijia to establish a close and extensive relationship with these universities, which also lays a solid foundation for Huijia to become a leading private school in the country and in the world.

Shao Ying: Today, as a specialized education investment and management company, Huijia has kindergarten, primary school, high school, vocational school, college, education research institute, Overseas Studies Center, and education consulting. At the fourth meeting granting awards to the country’s excellent corporate citizen, you won the title of Chinese Entrepreneur with Social Responsibilities. I remember that you once said: “In my understanding, the corporate responsibilities should be comprehensive and include the acts and the awareness of a company as well as, the actual impact of its products on the society. Instead of centering on profit-making capacity alone, we should see whether the company is outstanding in all these fields.” So how do you put into actual practice at Huijia the comprehensive social responsibilities, the acts, the awareness, and the products?

Wang Zhize: We have never forgotten our social responsibilities while developing Huijia School. As a corporate citizen, the first rule is to observe discipline and obey the law and the second rule is to fulfill our responsibilities by doing what we can. Company is an important part of the society and the social responsibilities are comprehensive. As an organization, a corporate should be responsible for its employees, which is more than manage them so they will work hard. I think a corporate should be good to its employees for they are important to it. An employee should be a good employee, a good citizen, someone with social responsibilities and make contributions to the society, the family, and the company. I think a company has responsibility to educate its employees.

A company should also be responsible for its products. Some produce bad products, cheat the public and pollute the environment; some seem to be successful and make lots of money but convey wrong messages to the society. For example, some education organizations are big in scale but their contents are wrong. Why would I say so? The main theme in the society is harmony right now but they teach kids to chase after vanity and prestige. This is a bad habit. But there are so many training organizations around us teaching people to go after fame and fortune.

So I believe that a corporate should study the core issues such as how to educate its employees, how to design its products, instead of going after profit. On the other hand, we shouldn’t judge a company merely according to the profit it makes, instead, we should see if it has done an excellent job in all fields.

As for Huijia, we stick to this from the very beginning. It’s a school and a corporate as well, for according to the regulations of WTO, schools and education institutions belong to the catalogue of Trade in Services, which has great impact on the society. But in China today, the education is incomplete and there are many problems with our education system. One of the main tasks of basic education is to create habits and Chinese basic education now becomes a standard. “Ancient Chinese told us that you could tell the future of a person when he was three years old and his old age when he was seven. This means once the habits have been formed, it’s hard to change them. That’s why Huijia pays special attention to the creation of good habits among kids.”

Huijia is a private school adopting comprehensive education system and a professional educator following both education and market rules. We try our best to be immersed in the world and propose the concept of bi-culture. This is our mission. In a sense, private school is an enterprise with products, services, quality control, HR, operation, and cost, for we’re the player of a big market. Private schools must follow both market and education rules. We’re in this market and have to take into consideration of its rules. While the public schools, on the other hand, are restricted by the environment and can’t do this. They don’t have to think about the rationality of their products and their future. That’s why I define them as incomplete education. While complete education shall satisfy the needs and come up to the characters of the educated, shall take into consideration of the actual needs and the personalities during the process of education. In my understanding, education should follow the rules of growing and keep training good habits among kids so as to inspire them and to expand their knowledge scope. The tasks of an education organization are to recruit a group of talented teachers, to construct a big stage, to guide and inspire the spontaneous development of children. But right now, most schools take college admission rate as their central task and don’t emphasize education. This is the root of all the problems. It might be true that this is the case in China and no complete education is possible if exam is the priority. But look at the developed countries, the public schools run by the government provide basic education and it doesn’t matter whether they have high college admission rate or make lots of money. Their only concern is to follow the rule of education, to offer basic education to each student, and to realize the equality of education. While their private schools emphasize diverse or alternative education so as to satisfy different needs of different students. This kind of education structure is essential to realize complete education in the society.

Shao Ying: Huijia Kindergarten founded in May 1999 is an important part of Huijia in past 17 years and now has 30 branches with nearly 4,000 preschoolers. It integrates several functions of Children Education Research Center, Children Education Training Center, Children Education Development Center, Children Community Education Center, and Children Education Resource Supply Center. According to recent reports, in many provinces and cities including Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Qingdao, kindergarten is extremely undersupplied and there are many problems such as the privileges of public kindergartens, the polarization of private ones, the high fees, and the imbalance between supply and demand of preschool education. While according to the National Guideline on Medium- and Long-Term Program for Education Development (2010-2020), the state authority makes it clear that the government should encourage public kindergartens and support private ones. With this background and concerning the development plan of Huijia, what are the mission, goal, and specific measures of Huijia Kindergarten? What will you do to strengthen the cooperation with the society?

Wang Zhize: The philosophy of Huijia Kindergarten is to “create a normal kid”. It’s an important part of Huijia education organization and the start of the integrated education pattern from preschool to higher education. It was founded in 1999 and currently adopts PYP education concepts and teaching methods advocated by the IBO. We have dedicated development teams and special forces initiated by preschool education experts. In 2010, we opened 6 new kindergartens and preschool education centers. According to our plan of establishing strategic development bases in regional cities, we have ventured into Hunan, Anhui, Hebei, and Guizhou Province by launching kindergarten projects.

After a decade of development, Huijia Kindergarten has become an integrated preschool education organization with multiple functions of teaching, researching, training, and developing. Together with Beijing Huijia (IB) Private School, China-Australia College Beijing, Beijing Huijia Vocational College, Singapore Chinese Unite International School, Overseas Studies Center (US and Australia), and Huijia Science & Education Development Company, we become a comprehensive education group. In September 2006, Singapore Chinese Unite International School started to admit students for kindergarten, primary and high school, marking a significant step that Huijia made in overseas education market and this is also the first overseas basic education organization launched by Chinese educator.

I keep progressing with my school. In realizing our dreams, the only thing we didn’t expect is that the growth pace is much faster. On the basis of our bi-cultural theories and ten years of experience, Huijia opened bilingual Singapore Chinese Unite International School and 70% of our students from kindergarten to senior high school are foreigners. At Singapore National Chinese Talk competition concluded recently, two of our students won silver and excellent awards. I think this is the honor for both Huijia and China.

Shao Ying: In March 2000, Huijia acquired Beijing Furen Foreign Studies University and had a complete education system from kindergarten to college. You once said that Huijia was a school and a corporate as well, for according to the regulations of WTO, schools and education institutions belong to the catalogue of Trade in Services, which has great impact on the society”. In order to make Huijia an integrated and co-related unit, how do you manage it as an education institute and an enterprise serving the society at the same time?

Wang Zhize: The main task of corporate management is to manage people. More than 60% of our teachers at senior high school are foreigners and Chinese with overseas education background. I know there are many Chinese willing to teach, but few of them have ideas, capacities and at the same time are good at thinking and know how to realize complete education. An educator shall have strong service mind and commitment, shall know how to serve the needs of personal growth of individual students. We know the prosperity of a country depends on education and the quality of education depends on teachers. So Huijia emphasizes both the hardware and the software. We believe that the sense of responsibilities and service is of vital importance to our staff and faculties. Our first requirement is the image. All Huijia people should be proactive and fulfill their duties so that those coming to us can feel our passion, honesty, responsibility and feel at home with us. Communication is important and the task is to expand our influence in the society. The second requirement is to cultivate our character. All our teachers should be content and stable instead of being reckless and frivolous. They should be dedicated to education and not be shallow and distracted. They should fulfill their duties required by the post, the society, and the country so as to satisfy the parents, the public, and the state.

I have many friends working as top management at companies and most of them think the college students are unprofessional in terms of mind, thought, and competence. The reasons are complicated and can be attributed to the students, the companies, and the prevailing education philosophy. The only thing that most people want right now is a job. They have no plan for the future and no insightful understanding of the career. From the perspective of an educator, I think our education system fails in connecting with the market and the career guidance is far from enough. Both school and corporate are entities and I don’t see any fundamental difference between the two. But be it a school or a company, it’s not an easy job to manage it well and this is especially the case with a school. An enterprise needs to be standardized, while a school needs to breed ideas and to cultivate personality. The school is composed of teachers. To gather a group of people with dreams, ideas, and characters is a rewarding process and this is also the corner stone of success.

There is another reason why we find it hard to recruit qualified teachers in China. Most of them didn’t have access to exploration-oriented and habit-forming education systems and grew up with exam-centered teaching environment. When they become teachers, they will treat their students just like their teachers used to treat them. I think this is a big problem. According to a well-known ancient Chinese saying, you can tell the future of a person when he was three years old and his old age when he was seven. What decides one’s future is his habit instead of knowledge. Why can’t current education system in China produce masters? I think this is one of the reasons.

In order to serve the society, an enterprise should have a professional team with service mind and commitment. This makes the biggest different between a company and a school. I think what’s the most important for an educator is the “heart”. Only those taking education as a serious career and with great interest can manage a school well. Other qualities include the sense of innovation, the habit of exploration, the character of extrovert, the skills of expression (bilingual), the abilities to learn, and the peaceful mind. The education philosophy, management regulations and requirements act as our baton, which, together with the ongoing training programs, helps us to foster the habits among faculties. Creation is a habit, so is critical thinking. But under current education system, the training is far from enough for the students and this is a terrible thing. In a sense, this makes it hard for us to recruit qualified teachers. It’s so difficult to be a good educator and time is a crucial factor as well. Eton College has a history of over 590 years and we know that quick success is impossible. The world is full of vanities and attractions, but still we manage to gather a group of good teachers and they’re Huijia people. Each of them has different career plans and we encourage them to pursue their dreams so as to keep improving their quality, capacity, and vision.

Shao Ying: In May 2005, Beijing Huijia School became the first one in the country introducing golf course and you advocate the combination of sports and knowledge not only at classrooms but also in daily life of students. For example, Huijia offers such courses of golf, horsemanship, and sailing and makes them important parts of a comprehensive and complete education system so as to reflect the harmonious relationship between people and nature, and to cultivate healthy body and mind. What activities that Huijia has organized in the field and what do you think is the most valuable for your education philosophy?

Wang Zhize: When the school was founded, we decided on our motto, that is, “to be a great Chinese”. As for how to realize character casting, the solution proposed by my father Wang Jiajun is “to be a person of the world with a heart of your home country”. To be a person of the world is to have civilized behavior, scientific brain, healthy body and mind, artistic cultivation, and commitment to the society. To be more specific, my father and former principal proposed four abilities of playing piano, swimming, computer, and English. This theory made him a pioneer in education community at the time and he urged educators to make more exploration and reforms in teaching arts, sports, IT, and English. The theory explains how to cultivate modern people and advocates that the students should step out to the outside world so as to get more information benefiting their growth, to grow an instinct love toward sports, to build up self-confidence, to make continuous progresses, and to experience the breath-taking charm of music.

To be a person of the world with a heart of home country means to have such qualities as self-respect, self-discipline, and self-empowerment. We hope that no matter where they are when they grow up, our students base everything on the foundation of Chinese culture. No matter what kind of jobs they have in future, our students should be the best in the fields and the top in the world. The students of Huijia have taken part in the summer camp organized by the wife of Master Qian Mu for several times, had chance to attend the classes on Chinese culture studies given by masters, and saw local customs with well-preserved traditional cultural elements. The students also have their own organizations to make in-depth studies of Chinese culture. These regular activities help the students to have a profound understanding and to be proud of our centuries-old culture. In order to cultivate good qualities among students, we should lead them out to see the world, to help them understand it, to think about it, to know what is good and how to use the good things to gain power and respect.

In recent years, the focus of theme activities at Huijia is “to read 10,000 books and to travel 10,000 miles”. Therefore, Huijia education has more comprehensive content. We organized hot-air balloon, horse-riding, and golf activities. In April 2008, our Thunder Dragon team won the silver medal at International Hot Air Balloon Event and created a new record in the country. The sports expands the vision scope of Huijia and we find that education is actually everywhere. When our balloon was the first arriving at the home field in Japan, we heard the applause and cheers from the audience. They got to know Huijia and China from our Thunder Dragon team. When the philosophy of being a person of the world with a heart of homeland highlights the international education at Huijia, a series of activities including Huijia IB graduate New Year Summits with various themes of the global warming, the financial tsunami, and the questions of masters, as well as seven batches of young overseas students visiting Australia, and 16 groups of students visiting the US make Huijia life more attractive. The introduction of hot-air balloon, golf, and horsemanship programs give kids more chances to realize a comprehensive growth.

Shao Ying: According to the statistics released by the CEIF, as of March 2010, 316 private schools in China obtained the venture capital totaling at 19.65 billion US dollars. At the 8th Chinese Private School Financing Meeting scheduled on November 25, 2010, in Hangzhou, there are several sessions focusing on higher education, pre-schooling, training, vocational education, elementary education, listed education companies, and governmental investment and financing on education. As a standing member of CEIF Council, Huijia will also present at the meeting. More and more schools seek rapid growth through financing, listing, A&M, what’s your opinion about this? What’s the future plan of Huijia?

Wang Zhize: I’d like to elaborate this from two perspectives. The first one is the market. Yes, we know that the competition is tense in the field and Huijia has to grow to survive. But on the basis of past experience, we also know that private schools offer alternative but complete education and therefore have to follow both market and education rules so as to meet the social needs and to stand steady in the market. The biggest advantage of Huijia is to provide on a timely basis diverse, customized, and quality services. In case we keep this in mind, lay solid material foundation, take into full consideration of the needs of both parents and students on complete and quality education, and respect their choices, we will make education the most rewarding thing in the world.

The IBO advocates cultivating students into an explorer, a thinker, a communicator, and a reflective practitioner, as well as someone with principles, open mind, compassion, and comprehensive knowledge and brave enough to take risks. IB senior high school follows the guidance and manages to reach the goals. An educator should grasp the chances, needs proper environment to grow, and should be patient waiting for the unfolding of convincing results.

I think a prestigious school should take social responsibilities by promoting social progress, carrying on scientific legacies, and producing groups of outstanding individuals. To be more specific, a prestigious school is like a monument, on which inscribes the contributions of the school to the country and to the society as well as the dedications and sacrifices made by masters and teachers. From cultural perspective, a prestigious school shall have prevailing philosophies, excellent teams, outstanding students, and top management. Since education and school is one of the carriers of civilization, there will be a group of stars, domestic and international, contemporary and eternal, coming from the school in future.

I want to do something in this field, not to run one school or to make it big. My dream is to create a world famous school and to open more schools in foreign countries. But without the joint efforts of several generations and the accumulation of decades or even centuries, it’s hard to achieve this. So I hope to do my job well right now instead of drawing beautiful pictures in the air.

The Chinese name of Huijia means to gather all that are beautiful. In future, there will be a group of teachers with ideas and personalities as well as well-educated students with thoughts, social responsibilities, and leadership at Huijia. Huijia people should make contributions to the progress of China and the world.

 

Huijia School, a Professional Educator Following Education and Market Rules

Apr 18-2013   



 

Reporter’s Note: Chinese education must break the bonds of convention, both public and private schools should stand the test of the market. In view of that, Chairman Wang Zhize of Beijing Huijia (IB) Private School has an answer to the question. “We’re studying how to avoid the disadvantages of both traditional and modern education methods,” he said. “We will stick to our mission of running a new, high-grade and international school.” As for him, to be new means to be innovative, to follow the rules of education and market, and to take a way different from that of exam-dominated teaching pattern. A high-grade school indicates high quality, standards, and efficiency, emphasizing EQ, services, skills, and personality. And Wang believes that an international school should have global vision and introduce international standards of education. By sticking to these principles, seventeen years after its founding, Huijia becomes increasingly popular among parents and students. These are the strategies of the school and also the codes of conduct for all Huijia people.

Shao Ying: I know you’re among the first doing business at Zhongguancun and running a private school in Beijing as well. From 1976 to 1983, you used to serve the army and then studied at Beijing Institute of Meteorology, majoring in radio technology. You resigned from Beijing Huaxia IT Company in 1989 and started your own business. You founded Beijing Huajia (IB) Private School in 1993. Now you’re Changping District CPPCC members, chairman of Huijia Education Institution, chairman and principal of Huijia Private School, vice chairman and executive president of Beijing Huijia Vocational College, chairman of Huijia Kindergarten, and chairman of Singapore Chinese Unite International School. You also manage Huijia Animation Vocational School, China-Australia College Beijing, and Overseas Studies Center and get involved in the entire education chain from preschool to higher education. When you look back at your life road of changing from a senior engineer to the one passionate about and engaged in education, can you tell me what factors helped you make these choices? Do you find your leaning and working experience in the fields other than education helpful and give you more insights?

Wang Zhize: Both my parents are engaged in education and I would say that my choice of running a school could find its root in my family and I had this dream since I was young.

My father, Wang Jiajun, is an experienced educator and still active in the field at the age of 79. He won the Life Achievement Award granted by Beijing municipal government and the award of making outstanding contributions to education in Beijing in three decades since the country introduced the policies of reform and opening-up. He has never left the field and, in his own words, did only three things in his life, to be teacher, bureau chief, and principal. He was the special-grade teacher of chemistry at middle school in Beijing and the city’s Model Worker. He used to be Haidian District Education Bureau chief and the principal of Haidian Teacher Training School, promoting the education of the district and making it a top education base in the country. He retired in 1996 and took the post of principal at my Huijia Private School. He was the only representative of private school taking part in the third National Education Conference.

Today, Huijia is growing steadily by following the established strategies of being a new, high-grade and international school. My father once joked about his will or the mission of Huijia. He said that No. 4 Middle School was a top public school in Beijing and Huijia should top among private schools and win the fame of Eton in China. I know Huijia has a long way to go to be a leading private school in the country and in the world.

I respect education career and my passion for it comes from the family. It’s in my blood. During the years when I worked at companies, I used to think about the nature of education and the proper form of education that can build the best character. I also thought about the role of an educator, the education with lasting effect, and the growing point of a private school in a city where there are numerous private education institutions. I noticed that most affluent parents were disappointed about the exam-oriented education system and looked forward to a different complete education emphasizing practical capacities and creative thinking. They wanted their kids to have the best education but had no other choice. It’s a dilemma for them. By satisfying their needs, Huijia will have a space of development. I investigated many famous schools all over the world and was greatly impressed by their beautiful campuses, profound culture, and inspiring mottoes. After my world tour, I had faith in my choice of running a private school in China. I knew what I wanted Huijia to be, Eton College in China.

Shao Ying: Huijia is a member of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) and adopts international education and management systems. It introduces international curriculum, established long-term partnership with leading education institutions and opened branches in the US, GB, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. Step by step, Huijia is progressing on the way to becoming an international school. In terms of cooperating with the counterparts in different countries, what are the achievements that you’re satisfied with? In colliding with different cultures, what are the problems that you think should be tackled with?

Wang Zhize: Deng Xiaoping, the chief designer of reform and opening up in China, proposed that Chinese education be geared toward modernization, the world and the future, while Huijia is an example of education internationalization. The kindergarten, primary and junior school of Huijia introduce the education concepts of IBPYP and IBMYP. The core of IB is comprehensive learning of knowledge, concept, skill, attitude, and behavior. This is an interesting and diverse process full of funs by combining the education theories and teaching resources in the west and the east and focusing on the integration of different subjects and cultures.

Huijia follows the rules of education and market as well to realize the so-called complete education. At Huijia, we treat every student with respect and they have access to rich cultural resources. Being immersed in the complete education environment at Huijia, the students grow in four fields of basic knowledge, arts, sports, and life. The four fields have the same effect on a student and help to create more harmonious and comprehensive students. The initial goal of Huijia is to create a Chinese private school with international influence. Today, 15,000 people are working hard to fulfill the goal with their determination and commitment.

In all the countries in the world, there are basically two types of schools, public and private. The government guarantees the basic education rights of its citizen and what’s the most important for a public school is to follow education rules so as to realize equal education. While private schools offered choice-based education featuring diversification to satisfy the needs of special groups. So they have to follow both education and market rules. It’s not an easy job, for it’s different from traditional teaching method and requires the recognition of teachers, students, school, and parents at the same time. Although more and more Chinese students and parents accept IB teaching method, Huijia still finds it difficult to find the faculties with international experience.

We all know that Eton College is a world famous private school and no one questions about that. In past five centuries, Eton has produced numerous politicians, economists, and military leaders, including 19 British prime ministers. In recent election, David Cameron, UK's 43-year-old new prime minister, became the youngest one taking the post in two centuries and he is also a graduate of Eton. In his Cabinet, 13 members used to study at the same campus. Huijia has a history of 17 years and started to recruit IB senior students in 1998, producing ten batches of graduates. In 2008, 53% of 140 graduates were admitted by the world top 100 universities; in 2009, the proportion was 55% out of 143; and this year, the number increased by 5 percentage points to 60% out of 102 graduates. IB graduates studying at the world leading colleges help Huijia to establish a close and extensive relationship with these universities, which also lays a solid foundation for Huijia to become a leading private school in the country and in the world.

Shao Ying: Today, as a specialized education investment and management company, Huijia has kindergarten, primary school, high school, vocational school, college, education research institute, Overseas Studies Center, and education consulting. At the fourth meeting granting awards to the country’s excellent corporate citizen, you won the title of Chinese Entrepreneur with Social Responsibilities. I remember that you once said: “In my understanding, the corporate responsibilities should be comprehensive and include the acts and the awareness of a company as well as, the actual impact of its products on the society. Instead of centering on profit-making capacity alone, we should see whether the company is outstanding in all these fields.” So how do you put into actual practice at Huijia the comprehensive social responsibilities, the acts, the awareness, and the products?

Wang Zhize: We have never forgotten our social responsibilities while developing Huijia School. As a corporate citizen, the first rule is to observe discipline and obey the law and the second rule is to fulfill our responsibilities by doing what we can. Company is an important part of the society and the social responsibilities are comprehensive. As an organization, a corporate should be responsible for its employees, which is more than manage them so they will work hard. I think a corporate should be good to its employees for they are important to it. An employee should be a good employee, a good citizen, someone with social responsibilities and make contributions to the society, the family, and the company. I think a company has responsibility to educate its employees.

A company should also be responsible for its products. Some produce bad products, cheat the public and pollute the environment; some seem to be successful and make lots of money but convey wrong messages to the society. For example, some education organizations are big in scale but their contents are wrong. Why would I say so? The main theme in the society is harmony right now but they teach kids to chase after vanity and prestige. This is a bad habit. But there are so many training organizations around us teaching people to go after fame and fortune.

So I believe that a corporate should study the core issues such as how to educate its employees, how to design its products, instead of going after profit. On the other hand, we shouldn’t judge a company merely according to the profit it makes, instead, we should see if it has done an excellent job in all fields.

As for Huijia, we stick to this from the very beginning. It’s a school and a corporate as well, for according to the regulations of WTO, schools and education institutions belong to the catalogue of Trade in Services, which has great impact on the society. But in China today, the education is incomplete and there are many problems with our education system. One of the main tasks of basic education is to create habits and Chinese basic education now becomes a standard. “Ancient Chinese told us that you could tell the future of a person when he was three years old and his old age when he was seven. This means once the habits have been formed, it’s hard to change them. That’s why Huijia pays special attention to the creation of good habits among kids.”

Huijia is a private school adopting comprehensive education system and a professional educator following both education and market rules. We try our best to be immersed in the world and propose the concept of bi-culture. This is our mission. In a sense, private school is an enterprise with products, services, quality control, HR, operation, and cost, for we’re the player of a big market. Private schools must follow both market and education rules. We’re in this market and have to take into consideration of its rules. While the public schools, on the other hand, are restricted by the environment and can’t do this. They don’t have to think about the rationality of their products and their future. That’s why I define them as incomplete education. While complete education shall satisfy the needs and come up to the characters of the educated, shall take into consideration of the actual needs and the personalities during the process of education. In my understanding, education should follow the rules of growing and keep training good habits among kids so as to inspire them and to expand their knowledge scope. The tasks of an education organization are to recruit a group of talented teachers, to construct a big stage, to guide and inspire the spontaneous development of children. But right now, most schools take college admission rate as their central task and don’t emphasize education. This is the root of all the problems. It might be true that this is the case in China and no complete education is possible if exam is the priority. But look at the developed countries, the public schools run by the government provide basic education and it doesn’t matter whether they have high college admission rate or make lots of money. Their only concern is to follow the rule of education, to offer basic education to each student, and to realize the equality of education. While their private schools emphasize diverse or alternative education so as to satisfy different needs of different students. This kind of education structure is essential to realize complete education in the society.

Shao Ying: Huijia Kindergarten founded in May 1999 is an important part of Huijia in past 17 years and now has 30 branches with nearly 4,000 preschoolers. It integrates several functions of Children Education Research Center, Children Education Training Center, Children Education Development Center, Children Community Education Center, and Children Education Resource Supply Center. According to recent reports, in many provinces and cities including Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Qingdao, kindergarten is extremely undersupplied and there are many problems such as the privileges of public kindergartens, the polarization of private ones, the high fees, and the imbalance between supply and demand of preschool education. While according to the National Guideline on Medium- and Long-Term Program for Education Development (2010-2020), the state authority makes it clear that the government should encourage public kindergartens and support private ones. With this background and concerning the development plan of Huijia, what are the mission, goal, and specific measures of Huijia Kindergarten? What will you do to strengthen the cooperation with the society?

Wang Zhize: The philosophy of Huijia Kindergarten is to “create a normal kid”. It’s an important part of Huijia education organization and the start of the integrated education pattern from preschool to higher education. It was founded in 1999 and currently adopts PYP education concepts and teaching methods advocated by the IBO. We have dedicated development teams and special forces initiated by preschool education experts. In 2010, we opened 6 new kindergartens and preschool education centers. According to our plan of establishing strategic development bases in regional cities, we have ventured into Hunan, Anhui, Hebei, and Guizhou Province by launching kindergarten projects.

After a decade of development, Huijia Kindergarten has become an integrated preschool education organization with multiple functions of teaching, researching, training, and developing. Together with Beijing Huijia (IB) Private School, China-Australia College Beijing, Beijing Huijia Vocational College, Singapore Chinese Unite International School, Overseas Studies Center (US and Australia), and Huijia Science & Education Development Company, we become a comprehensive education group. In September 2006, Singapore Chinese Unite International School started to admit students for kindergarten, primary and high school, marking a significant step that Huijia made in overseas education market and this is also the first overseas basic education organization launched by Chinese educator.

I keep progressing with my school. In realizing our dreams, the only thing we didn’t expect is that the growth pace is much faster. On the basis of our bi-cultural theories and ten years of experience, Huijia opened bilingual Singapore Chinese Unite International School and 70% of our students from kindergarten to senior high school are foreigners. At Singapore National Chinese Talk competition concluded recently, two of our students won silver and excellent awards. I think this is the honor for both Huijia and China.

Shao Ying: In March 2000, Huijia acquired Beijing Furen Foreign Studies University and had a complete education system from kindergarten to college. You once said that Huijia was a school and a corporate as well, for according to the regulations of WTO, schools and education institutions belong to the catalogue of Trade in Services, which has great impact on the society”. In order to make Huijia an integrated and co-related unit, how do you manage it as an education institute and an enterprise serving the society at the same time?

Wang Zhize: The main task of corporate management is to manage people. More than 60% of our teachers at senior high school are foreigners and Chinese with overseas education background. I know there are many Chinese willing to teach, but few of them have ideas, capacities and at the same time are good at thinking and know how to realize complete education. An educator shall have strong service mind and commitment, shall know how to serve the needs of personal growth of individual students. We know the prosperity of a country depends on education and the quality of education depends on teachers. So Huijia emphasizes both the hardware and the software. We believe that the sense of responsibilities and service is of vital importance to our staff and faculties. Our first requirement is the image. All Huijia people should be proactive and fulfill their duties so that those coming to us can feel our passion, honesty, responsibility and feel at home with us. Communication is important and the task is to expand our influence in the society. The second requirement is to cultivate our character. All our teachers should be content and stable instead of being reckless and frivolous. They should be dedicated to education and not be shallow and distracted. They should fulfill their duties required by the post, the society, and the country so as to satisfy the parents, the public, and the state.

I have many friends working as top management at companies and most of them think the college students are unprofessional in terms of mind, thought, and competence. The reasons are complicated and can be attributed to the students, the companies, and the prevailing education philosophy. The only thing that most people want right now is a job. They have no plan for the future and no insightful understanding of the career. From the perspective of an educator, I think our education system fails in connecting with the market and the career guidance is far from enough. Both school and corporate are entities and I don’t see any fundamental difference between the two. But be it a school or a company, it’s not an easy job to manage it well and this is especially the case with a school. An enterprise needs to be standardized, while a school needs to breed ideas and to cultivate personality. The school is composed of teachers. To gather a group of people with dreams, ideas, and characters is a rewarding process and this is also the corner stone of success.

There is another reason why we find it hard to recruit qualified teachers in China. Most of them didn’t have access to exploration-oriented and habit-forming education systems and grew up with exam-centered teaching environment. When they become teachers, they will treat their students just like their teachers used to treat them. I think this is a big problem. According to a well-known ancient Chinese saying, you can tell the future of a person when he was three years old and his old age when he was seven. What decides one’s future is his habit instead of knowledge. Why can’t current education system in China produce masters? I think this is one of the reasons.

In order to serve the society, an enterprise should have a professional team with service mind and commitment. This makes the biggest different between a company and a school. I think what’s the most important for an educator is the “heart”. Only those taking education as a serious career and with great interest can manage a school well. Other qualities include the sense of innovation, the habit of exploration, the character of extrovert, the skills of expression (bilingual), the abilities to learn, and the peaceful mind. The education philosophy, management regulations and requirements act as our baton, which, together with the ongoing training programs, helps us to foster the habits among faculties. Creation is a habit, so is critical thinking. But under current education system, the training is far from enough for the students and this is a terrible thing. In a sense, this makes it hard for us to recruit qualified teachers. It’s so difficult to be a good educator and time is a crucial factor as well. Eton College has a history of over 590 years and we know that quick success is impossible. The world is full of vanities and attractions, but still we manage to gather a group of good teachers and they’re Huijia people. Each of them has different career plans and we encourage them to pursue their dreams so as to keep improving their quality, capacity, and vision.

Shao Ying: In May 2005, Beijing Huijia School became the first one in the country introducing golf course and you advocate the combination of sports and knowledge not only at classrooms but also in daily life of students. For example, Huijia offers such courses of golf, horsemanship, and sailing and makes them important parts of a comprehensive and complete education system so as to reflect the harmonious relationship between people and nature, and to cultivate healthy body and mind. What activities that Huijia has organized in the field and what do you think is the most valuable for your education philosophy?

Wang Zhize: When the school was founded, we decided on our motto, that is, “to be a great Chinese”. As for how to realize character casting, the solution proposed by my father Wang Jiajun is “to be a person of the world with a heart of your home country”. To be a person of the world is to have civilized behavior, scientific brain, healthy body and mind, artistic cultivation, and commitment to the society. To be more specific, my father and former principal proposed four abilities of playing piano, swimming, computer, and English. This theory made him a pioneer in education community at the time and he urged educators to make more exploration and reforms in teaching arts, sports, IT, and English. The theory explains how to cultivate modern people and advocates that the students should step out to the outside world so as to get more information benefiting their growth, to grow an instinct love toward sports, to build up self-confidence, to make continuous progresses, and to experience the breath-taking charm of music.

To be a person of the world with a heart of home country means to have such qualities as self-respect, self-discipline, and self-empowerment. We hope that no matter where they are when they grow up, our students base everything on the foundation of Chinese culture. No matter what kind of jobs they have in future, our students should be the best in the fields and the top in the world. The students of Huijia have taken part in the summer camp organized by the wife of Master Qian Mu for several times, had chance to attend the classes on Chinese culture studies given by masters, and saw local customs with well-preserved traditional cultural elements. The students also have their own organizations to make in-depth studies of Chinese culture. These regular activities help the students to have a profound understanding and to be proud of our centuries-old culture. In order to cultivate good qualities among students, we should lead them out to see the world, to help them understand it, to think about it, to know what is good and how to use the good things to gain power and respect.

In recent years, the focus of theme activities at Huijia is “to read 10,000 books and to travel 10,000 miles”. Therefore, Huijia education has more comprehensive content. We organized hot-air balloon, horse-riding, and golf activities. In April 2008, our Thunder Dragon team won the silver medal at International Hot Air Balloon Event and created a new record in the country. The sports expands the vision scope of Huijia and we find that education is actually everywhere. When our balloon was the first arriving at the home field in Japan, we heard the applause and cheers from the audience. They got to know Huijia and China from our Thunder Dragon team. When the philosophy of being a person of the world with a heart of homeland highlights the international education at Huijia, a series of activities including Huijia IB graduate New Year Summits with various themes of the global warming, the financial tsunami, and the questions of masters, as well as seven batches of young overseas students visiting Australia, and 16 groups of students visiting the US make Huijia life more attractive. The introduction of hot-air balloon, golf, and horsemanship programs give kids more chances to realize a comprehensive growth.

Shao Ying: According to the statistics released by the CEIF, as of March 2010, 316 private schools in China obtained the venture capital totaling at 19.65 billion US dollars. At the 8th Chinese Private School Financing Meeting scheduled on November 25, 2010, in Hangzhou, there are several sessions focusing on higher education, pre-schooling, training, vocational education, elementary education, listed education companies, and governmental investment and financing on education. As a standing member of CEIF Council, Huijia will also present at the meeting. More and more schools seek rapid growth through financing, listing, A&M, what’s your opinion about this? What’s the future plan of Huijia?

Wang Zhize: I’d like to elaborate this from two perspectives. The first one is the market. Yes, we know that the competition is tense in the field and Huijia has to grow to survive. But on the basis of past experience, we also know that private schools offer alternative but complete education and therefore have to follow both market and education rules so as to meet the social needs and to stand steady in the market. The biggest advantage of Huijia is to provide on a timely basis diverse, customized, and quality services. In case we keep this in mind, lay solid material foundation, take into full consideration of the needs of both parents and students on complete and quality education, and respect their choices, we will make education the most rewarding thing in the world.

The IBO advocates cultivating students into an explorer, a thinker, a communicator, and a reflective practitioner, as well as someone with principles, open mind, compassion, and comprehensive knowledge and brave enough to take risks. IB senior high school follows the guidance and manages to reach the goals. An educator should grasp the chances, needs proper environment to grow, and should be patient waiting for the unfolding of convincing results.

I think a prestigious school should take social responsibilities by promoting social progress, carrying on scientific legacies, and producing groups of outstanding individuals. To be more specific, a prestigious school is like a monument, on which inscribes the contributions of the school to the country and to the society as well as the dedications and sacrifices made by masters and teachers. From cultural perspective, a prestigious school shall have prevailing philosophies, excellent teams, outstanding students, and top management. Since education and school is one of the carriers of civilization, there will be a group of stars, domestic and international, contemporary and eternal, coming from the school in future.

I want to do something in this field, not to run one school or to make it big. My dream is to create a world famous school and to open more schools in foreign countries. But without the joint efforts of several generations and the accumulation of decades or even centuries, it’s hard to achieve this. So I hope to do my job well right now instead of drawing beautiful pictures in the air.

The Chinese name of Huijia means to gather all that are beautiful. In future, there will be a group of teachers with ideas and personalities as well as well-educated students with thoughts, social responsibilities, and leadership at Huijia. Huijia people should make contributions to the progress of China and the world.