Philip Sohmen, the successor to a Hong Kong-based shipping fortune, has a marvelous mission in molding the next generation of China’s youth under a newly updated education system with a mission to promote prosperity. Sohmen gave a helping hand for 16 years as executive deputy chairman of YK Pao School, a private school in Shanghai. In the past two years, he had seen radical change in primary education.
Sohmen and his mother established a Chinese-English bilingual school in 2007. Philip Sohmen has served for 16 years as executive deputy chairman of YK Pao School. He also said that the local school textbooks, previously published and authorized by local governments are not useful. A centralized and unified version of textbooks, including the thoughts of Chinese President Xi Jinping, has been introduced for the first time across the nation. Sohmen said in an interview at his office in central Hong Kong. The national curriculum is a contemporary curriculum that will help students to gain skills and strengths. It’s a curriculum that's committed to solving the challenge of education for the next generation.
At Sohmen’s school, students will have to spend their quality time outside of the classroom on extracurricular activities, such as sports, chess, debate and hockey. Reading textbooks and doing well in academics will not suffice. Time spent on online gaming is also reduced by the government and students can only use phones with the permission of teachers. The idea is to have opportunities for students that are not only profit-oriented but also to develop intelligence in all areas.
