Dr. Zheng Hongguang holds a Bachelor of Laws from Fujian Normal University, a Master of Sociology from the University of Macau, and a Doctor of Education from the City University of Macau. He currently serves as the principal of Escola Tong Nam in Macau and has been engaged as an adjunct professor and visiting professor by multiple universities. He concurrently holds several important positions in educational associations, including president of the Macau Chinese Education Association, deputy director of the Culture and Education Special Committee of the China Overseas Friendship Association, and vice chairman of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Primary and Secondary School Principals Joint Association, contributing to Macau's education with a professional attitude. Yet he has always taken the greatest pride in his identity as a "teacher", guarding his original aspiration with craftsmanship, writing responsibility with sentiment, and becoming a steadfast practitioner of patriotic and pro-Macau education in Macau.
1. Serving the Nation through Education: A Path of Faith from a Mountain Village to Haojiang
In 1984, Zheng Hongguang, then not yet twenty years old, stepped onto the podium upon graduating from a junior college, and from then on formed an indissoluble bond with the cause of education, deeply falling in love with teaching and nurturing people. He once taught at secondary schools and vocational secondary schools on the mainland, accumulating rich teaching experience. After moving to Macau in 1992, under the guidance of Principal Du Lan, he began his teaching career in Haojiang.
That education changes destiny is his most profound realisation, and this belief runs through his educational practice. When Macau Fong Chong School added a secondary section, he was recommended by Principal Du of Haojiang Middle School to serve as vice principal and director of studies; when the principal of Macau Commercial and Training Night Middle School fell seriously ill, he was appointed to take over as principal; when the declining birth rate affected school enrolment, he again transferred to serve at Escola Tong Nam. No matter where he was or what position he held, he never calculated personal gains and losses.
In order to better integrate Macao's education into the overall development of the nation, the Macau Chinese Education Association has in recent years successively established educational cooperation alliances with multiple mainland provinces, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Primary and Secondary School Principals Joint Association, the Jiangsu-Hong Kong-Macau Basic Education Alliance, the Chongqing-Hong Kong-Macao Huaxia Education Evaluation Alliance, the Zhejiang-Hong Kong-Macau Digital Education Alliance, and the Sichuan-Hong Kong-Macau Basic Education Alliance. As president of the Macau Chinese Education Association, Zheng Hongguang has played an important bridging and linking role in these efforts.
2. Patriotic and Pro-Macau: A Deep Cultivator of Constitution and Basic Law Education
Zheng Hongguang has always regarded patriotic and pro-Macau education as his core mission. When he served as a frontline teacher, he won the overall championship in Macau in the Macau-wide Teachers' Patriotic Education Courseware Design Competition. Every year he organised students to participate in the Macau-wide Students' Basic Law Knowledge Competition, and the students he coached won first place for many consecutive years. The "Macau Basic Law Textbook" he led the compilation of is currently a secondary school textbook in Macau. He has published a personal monograph, "Key Points and Cognitive Tests of Macau Basic Law Knowledge". He is also a compiler of the question bank for the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China" and the "Macau Basic Law", and innovatively planned and developed an online learning and testing application for the Constitution and the Basic Law. For many years he has served as chairman of the Working Committee of the Macau Constitution and Basic Law Online Knowledge Competition, actively promoting knowledge of the Constitution and the Basic Law to the general public and young people in Macau.
He has also served for many years as the person in charge of the "Chinese Cultural Knowledge Qualification Project Examination" in the Macau region, and together with other responsible persons of the Education Association, organised the compilation of the "Chinese Cultural Knowledge Qualification Project Examination Textbook". Every year, the Macau-wide Chinese Cultural Knowledge Qualification Project Examination is held, powerfully promoting the inheritance and advancement of excellent traditional Chinese culture in Macao. In addition, he serves as the person in charge of "Macao Education", publishing four educational journals each year, building an important academic exchange platform for Macau's educational circles. He has also been invited to serve as one of the chief producers of the film "Macau October", passing on historical memory through cultural vehicles. He serves as an honorary member of the National Teachers Museum, promoting the traditional Chinese idea of "respecting teachers and valuing education".
3. A Model Educator Who Leads by Example and Disregards Personal Gains and Losses
The Macau Chinese Education Association was founded in 1920 and is one of Macau's five traditional major associations, carrying out over a hundred various large-scale activities each year. As president, Zheng Hongguang devotes his utmost effort to every task. He once served as executive deputy director of the organising committee of the Ministry of Education's "Huaxia Gardeners Grand Gathering — Macau", contributing important strength to the successful holding of the "2019 Huaxia Gardeners Grand Gathering — Macau Tour"; he served as chairman of the organising committee of the Macao education sector's "Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC and the 20th Anniversary of Macau's Return to the Motherland", jointly organising and planning large-scale patriotic and pro-Macao educational activities such as artistic performances together with the Macau Chinese Education Association, the Macau Catholic Schools Association, the Macau Public Education Association, and the Macau Higher Education Development Promotion Association. With the joint efforts of all colleagues of the Education Association, every activity was carried out splendidly and highly praised.
He actively supports and supervises the Macau SAR Government in administering according to law. He has served as a member of the Macau SAR Narcotics Control Committee, a member of the Education Committee, a member of the Central District Social Service Consultative Committee, a member of the Urban Planning Committee, and a course committee member of the Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre. He currently serves as a member of the Macau SAR Government's Talent Development Committee and a member of the Macau Foundation's Trust Committee, offering suggestions and strategies for Macau's development from a professional perspective. Together with other responsible persons of the Chinese Education Association, he strived for government attention to the rights and interests of teaching staff in private schools, ultimately prompting the Macau SAR Government to enact the "Framework for the System of Teaching Staff in Private Schools" in 2012, providing important institutional safeguards for educators in Macau's private schools.
4. Enthusiastic about Public Welfare: An Actor in Charitable Educational Assistance
Principal Zheng Hongguang's national sentiment is also reflected in his giving back to society. As one of the persons in charge of the organising committee of the "Huaxia Oasis Educational Assistance Action", the Chinese Education Association organises Macao teachers and students to travel to western mainland provinces each year to deliver donations. Over the past decade, this action has cumulatively donated more than 15 million yuan to the west, subsidising nearly a hundred impoverished students from mainland western regions to study at universities in Macao.
He has never forgotten his attachment to and gratitude for his hometown. He and his family took the lead in donating one million yuan to build roads in his hometown, turning a natural chasm into a thoroughfare; he subsidised hometown teachers to travel to the Greater Bay Area for exchange and study, broadening the horizons of rural teachers; in recent years, he and his family have donated more than 100,000 yuan annually in various donations. He practises the ideals and beliefs of Macao's educators and the spirit of an "educator" through practical actions.
Having taught for more than forty years, Principal Zheng has devoted the most beautiful years of his life to Macau's education. He develops schools through innovation, serves the public with enthusiasm, practises his patriotic original aspiration with sincerity, and interprets the profound meaning of "the craftsmanship of a teacher" through practical actions. On the new journey of Macau's educational cause, he still strides forward firmly, continuing to write the moving chapter of a Haojiang teacher.
This article is reproduced from "Macau Culture and Tourism Daily", original URL: http://www.ctnmacau.com/jiaoyuzixun/802.html