Getting pupils in the zone to enjoy and excel

Park Keum-bee, an 18-year-old girl from South Korea who studied at Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 High School, can relax for the summer safe in the knowledge that she has a guaranteed place to study at Peking University, one of China's most prestigious higher education institutions.

Park, however, is not a unique case. A further 70 students from the school have been accepted by China's top two universities, Peking and Tsinghua, and another 165 of her schoolmates have been accepted by universities ranked among the world's top 100.

She is quick to attribute much of her success to the school's innovative teaching methods, inclusive learning environment and the excellence of the teachers.

"The years I studied at the school were the most important period of time in my life," Park said. "The teaching concepts there allowed me to see China's opening-up process, as well as its sense of tolerance and innovation."

The high school, established in 1995, is located in the Xi'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone, one of China's leading industrial zones, which has attracted a number of foreign enterprises and experts.

Park's father, who works for a South Korean company in the zone, is a foreign expert.

"I came to Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province in Northwest China, four years ago when I was 14 years old and studied at the school where I experienced problems due to culture shock and learned to seek common ground while seeking to resolve differences," Park said.

Due to these initial difficulties, Park found it hard to adapt to her new environment and her grades suffered initially.

She rallied, however, thanks to the encouragement given to her by one of her teachers.

"He was my Grade One teacher and once praised me in front of all of my classmates, saying that although my grades were not as good as some of the other students, I could speak both Korean and Chinese, as well as fluent English, which showed that I had the greatest potential for development out of everyone in the class," Park recalled.

Park warmly recalled the way the teachers at the school worked to cultivate students' comprehensive talents and provide them with the widest possible range of social opportunities.

"We not only learned knowledge from books, but also expanded our overall outlook, which has helped us to prepare for our future roles in society," she said.

During her three years at the school, Park participated in the school's English debate club, and represented the school at the 21st Century Lenovo Cup National English Speaking Competition for Primary and High School Students and won first prize.

Park's Chinese language skills are equally as impressive.

"If I don't say I am from Korea, it seems almost impossible for people to tell that I am not Chinese," she said proudly.

Having lived in Xi'an for a number of years, Park has also fallen in love with Chinese culture.

"I think Chinese people are sensitive and friendly and treat people very kindly, especially strangers," Park said.

Park plans to choose finance as her university major and said that she wanted to be a CEO and establish her own business in China.

"The Chinese government has established a good set of preferential policies for entrepreneurship," she said.

Aside from Park, there are many more foreign experts' children studying in the city.

As the city looks to develop into an international metropolis, an increasing number of foreign employees are coming there to work.

In 2012, South Korea's Samsung Group, which is renowned worldwide for its electronics products, invested $7 billion in the Xi'an Hightech Industrial Development Zone to build a production line and research center.

The group also brought a large number of Korean employees to work in the zone, which subsequently had a responsibility to provide the children with a decent education, said Zhao Hongzhuan, member of the city's0 Party standing committee, and secretary of the zone's Party committee.

Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 High School is the top school in both the zone and the city. It maintains its high standards by recruiting more highly-qualified staff every year to provide foreign students in Xi'an with a first-class education.

Zhao said the zone provides a complete education for both domestic and foreign students, from kindergarten through high school, thanks to a combination of public and private investment.

"The brand of education in Gaoxin is not only a shining example of the zone's overall economic and social development, but also provides a solid guarantee for both talents and investors," Zhao said.

malie@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/09/2016 page12)