The BUddy Post – HKBU Alumni Affairs Office

Brought up in Hong Kong, alumnus Dr Rizwan Ullah (Education- English Language for Teaching) speaks fluent Cantonese. Although winning a school hunk contest during his secondary school years, he chose to take another path rather than entering the entertainment industry where his development might be confined by his non-Chinese identity. He aspired to prove his ability, therefore he completed a bachelor’s degree, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), a Master’s degree in Education and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education degree consecutively. Currently Vice Principal of Law Ting Pong Secondary School, alumnus Dr Ullah hopes to share his experience which may inspire other ethnic minorities (EM) to break boundaries.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

According to alumnus Dr Ullah, even though racial discrimination is not common locally, stereotypes towards EM are quite deep-rooted. He frankly said, “Coming from a grassroots family with an EM identity, I did not dare to dream of becoming a professional when I was young.” While working in a Japanese-style supermarket not long after his completion of a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Dr Ullah received an invitation from his secondary school’s Vice Principal for teaching at his alma mater. He decided to give it a try as it was an unmissable opportunity to him. Demonstrating his passion in education and his charismatic character, Dr Ullah successfully passed the interview and stepped into the education sector since then. With this cherished opportunity, he strived to become a professional educator. Having extraordinary determination, he finished the studies from a PGDE to a PhD in Education within eight years while he was teaching in the daytime.

The Choice of Minority

After completing the PGDE studies, alumnus Dr Ullah chose to further his professional knowledge in education at HKBU, taking the Master of Education programme. Recalling the memory of the two years, he shared, “At that time, I needed to rush to the HKBU campus for class after work three days a week; in addition, there were assignments, group projects, tests and exams, and all these made my days at HKBU very fruitful.” Moreover, Dr Ullah always set a high standard for himself and would rather take on challenges for attaining outstanding results. He mentioned, “Among 98 classmates, a majority picked project work as their graduation assignment, while only three picked dissertation, and I was one of them. To achieve a good result, I intentionally worked on an original topic, which was about the comparison between and analysis of EM taking the examination of Chinese Language at HKCEE and IGCSE, with a view to drawing the attention of educators.” Dr Ullah further investigated the issue in his PhD dissertation, and now he serves a number of public services, including board member of the Equal Opportunities Commission, member of the Youth Development Commission and the Honorary Secretary of Federation of Ethnic Communities Hong Kong etc. He has never ceased to voice the difficulties encountered by EM in local education.

Willing to Take on Challenges

Having served his secondary school for 17 years, alumnus Dr Ullah had already obtained a Certification for Principalship; nevertheless, he was willing to embrace a challenge by taking a bold step to join a mainstream school. He elaborated, “I hope the labelling on EM in society could be eliminated, such that EM could blend into the mainstream society and occupy key positions.” He joined Law Ting Pong Secondary School as Vice Principal in 2020. In his eyes, education should focus on educating people rather than teaching the curriculum, and hence cultivating whole person development of students is paramount. He likes to lead students to organise activities for training their multi-faceted skills, including event organisation, creativity, communication, coordinating with others and problem solving etc. Recently, Dr Ullah has guided students to organise game booths at school for promoting the “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination”, during which students not only learn to respect and embrace different races, but their multi-faceted skills can also be trained. What’s more, he has adopted an interesting approach to present the serious topic, packaging the day as “HOT DOG Day”, which denotes “hit out the discrimination of our generation”.

To Dr Ullah, his current work is enjoyable as it enables him to maximise his potentials, from teaching the subject of Citizenship and Social Development, nurturing students’ development to managing financial and administrative work. While every day is filled with challenges at work, he reflected upon his relationship with colleagues: “I think there is no communication gap between us as I understand the local culture. Moreover, in my position, I usually give them immediate feedback to help them tackle with the issues.” He has also established an authoritative image in students’ eyes as he jokingly said, “I simply stand in front of students without saying anything, and they know they have to keep quiet.”

Don’t Put Limits on Yourself

To students, alumnus Dr Ullah is a strict teacher; to his son, rather contrastingly, he is more like a friend. He shared how he usually gets along with his son, “I prefer instilling correct values in him to pushing his academic performance, and I let him have his own way.” Similarly, he extends this conviction to education. On his advices to young alumni who would like to join the education sector, he stated, “The mission of education is to empower young people to explore their potentials in suitable areas, so they can have a sense of achievement. Therefore, being passionate is of utmost importance, together with a tough mind to cope with the stress coming from various aspects, including schools, parents and students. You need to throw yourself into education.” Last but not least, he quotes the martial arts philosophy from Bruce Lee whom he admires, “Having no limitation as limitation”, to inspire and encourage young people not to put limits on themselves, so that they are able to build a positive mindset and manage themselves well whatever the situation is.