The Evangelical School Development Incorporation Limited (ESDI) is the sponsoring body of the School. It was established in August, 1962 by a group of devoted Christians for the sole purpose of sponsoring evangelical Christian schools of high standards and was registered under the Companies Ordinance in July, 1964.
ESDI began operating its first school, Carmel Secondary School, then known as Carmel English School, in Homantin, Kowloon, in September, 1964. Though times were hard, God was faithful and difficulties too numerous to list were overcome one by one. Eventually, the Education Department(ED) was so impressed by the work of the Incorportaion that it allocated five more secondary schools and two primary schools to ESDI.
ESDI has come a long way. But its work is far from finished. In the years to come, the Incorporation will, besides consolidating what it has already achieved, continue to apply to ED to operate more schools, for the benefit of Hong Kong youths.
As can be seen from above, our School was established in September, 1987. It was the first school in the Tseung Kwan O new town. The first batch of four hundred pupils, four classes of S.4 and six classes of S.1, coming mostly from Kwun Tong and Wong Tai Sin, and twenty nine staff members, one Principal, seventeen teachers, three clerks, one laboratory technician and seven janitors, coming from all over the territory, found themselves in the midst of a vast construction site: the sea was being reclaimed and roads, tunnels, houses were being built at a breathtaking pace. In the first few days of September, there was no service to speak of: no buses, no mail delivery, no garbage collection, not even a telephone. Staff and pupils were bussed in by coaches running along fixed routes at fixed times, and anyone who missed the appointed one either had to miss school, take a taxi or walk from the nearest bus stop for about an hour or so to get to school. When the last lesson was over, everyone, except for the Principal, who drove, and the clerks, who rode with him, was gone in less than fifteen minutes. Things improved little by little, especially after residents started moving in in February, 1988. But, even then, everyone had to either bring their own lunch or eat lunch boxes for two years, as there were neither restaurants nor cafes.
As the years went by, we admitted more pupils until, after three years, we had a full contingent of more than eleven hundred pupils spread over thirty classes in seven forms: two classes of S.6 and S.7 each, four classes of S.4 and S.5 each, and six classes of S.1, S.2 and S.3 each. We also had more than fifty teachers, two laboratory technicians, five clerks and twelve janitors.
As more residents moved into Tseung Kwan O, more primary pupils vied for local secondary school places. The hard work of our teachers made the School attractive to parents and pupils alike and, as a result, the standard of our incoming pupils improved. As a matter of fact, they were so good that, in 1998, when ED laid down stringent conditions that schools had to meet before they could use English as the medium of instruction, we passed with flying colours and we are now the only school in the Sai Kung District that can use English as the medium of instruction.
With improved input, our output improved. From the days when, among our first cohort of S.5 pupils, one failed in all eight subjects, scoring seven U's and one F in the HKCEE, we now count among our illustrious alumni one who scored eight A's, one seven A's and many with varying numbers of A's and B's. Among our first group of S.7 pupils, only seven came from our own S.1. Now, all sixty S.7 pupils come from our S.1, and more than 90% of them go on to study in local universities. Besides, our pupils have also done well in their conduct, in extra-curricular activities and in their spiritual development.
The Lord has been gracious to us, granting us the wisdom and strength we needed in those days when tears were shed liberally by teachers for their pupils. Today He is still with us. With better facilities, the School Improvement Programme made it possible for us to add a Multi-Media Learning Centre, another Computer Room, and Information Technology Workshop, two Counselling Rooms, and the Quality Education Fund, in addition to the School's own funds, made it possible for us to have air-conditioning and IT equipment in every room, and more resources, let us dedicated oruselves to His service and the service of our pupils, and do even greater things by Him, through Him and for Him.
