12 April 2003 00:16
Marathon vision guides reformer for long haul Australian Chris Wardlaw takes on a tough challenge in tackling bureaucratic conservatism, writes Katherine Forestier
CHRIS WARDLAW has a mountain to climb as the man recruited from overseas to help implement Hong Kong's ambitious
education reforms. But for the wiry, deceptively fragile-looking 53-year-old, mountains are no obstacle. He can run from
his office in the Education and Manpower Bureau's Wan Chai headquarters to the Peak in 20 minutes, no sweat.
Wardlaw is an education bureaucrat of many differences. The most obvious is that he is among the first in recent years
to have been recruited to the upper echelons of the EMB not only from outside the civil service, but from overseas.
Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, his recruitment is due to a decision by his boss, Permanent Secretary for Education
Fanny Law, that what education reform needed was a view from outside, from someone who had the experience of dragging
another system through a similar process. But it is rumoured that what really impressed the panel interviewing Wardlaw
before he took up his post as deputy secretary (quality assurance and curriculum) a year ago this month, was not his
achievements as a bureaucrat implementing school change in Victoria, but the extra curricular items on his CV. These
included being Australia's head track and field coach for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He is also an Olympic
runner in his own right, coming 12th in the 10,000 metre finals at Montreal in 1976 and then competing in the marathon
in Moscow four years later. The thinking apparently went that if he could manage a team of athletes that won one gold
and two silver medals for their country, the former general manager of standards and accountability for Victoria's
Department of Education must be the man to help the Education Department win gold for the cause of reform. Wardlaw has
no doubt his history as a high performance athlete and then coach is a plus for the task at hand. "Working on the
Sydney Olympics is equivalent to working on Hong Kong's education reforms," he says. "Both have big,
important goals and timelines. The key to both is the detailed implementation strategy to get there.
"The key issue in change is human resource management. I think coaching in general is something people are
starting to see as a very important part of this. I have a saying that teaching is coaching and coaching is teaching.
They have a very similar pedagogy," he says. It is all about mobilising people to optimise their performance, about
being determined to win but also being realistic as to the goals that are achievable. He also typifies the balanced
lifestyle that comes with successful whole-person development - what Hong Kong wants out of its reform drive.
Wardlaw runs every day. During the week this will be for 40 minutes from his office. At weekends he takes to the
MacLehose Trail, for two-hour stints. But when he runs, he is not running away from his duties as an education
bureaucrat. "I think a lot on the run. That is how I resolve things. I come back with half the solution." He
still manages a team of ten long distance runners in Australia, which he does mainly through distance learning. He works
out their individual training systems and strategic planning and can trust that as self-motivated athletes they will do
the rest without close supervision. "Being a good teacher, the theory is the learner will be able to manage
themselves," he says.
Wardlaw, an economist by training who has done his time teaching economics and history at both secondary and
university levels, is among those who can't help but be impressed by the EMB's decision to import him as fresh
blood into the system.
"Any organisation needs its outsiders. If it is too insular it can't survive. In this global world,
knowledge is crossing boundaries, rapidly," he says. Australia was an obvious hunting ground for the EMB. "I
represent a system that has been through major reform. Australia has, for better or worse, been at the leading edge of
the reform movement." In Victoria, he was responsible for implementing school-based management, something Hong Kong
is attempting to do now. "We unpacked the bureaucracy and delivered it to the schools," he says. "Schools
were then free to manage their own resources within a framework. The proposition was that the government and education
bureau made the decisions about 'what' while schools were free to say 'how'. In Hong Kong, schools
have a long way to go in school-based management. They have the goal, but there are still a lot of bureaucratic
processes they are struggling to get rid of." In his day-job here, Wardlaw has a broad portfolio. He oversees the
Curriculum Development Institute and the Quality Assurance Inspectorate. He is also the government representative on the
Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority and the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (Scolar).
His coaching skills are tested to the limits, being responsible for an EMB staff of 480 as well as those hired on a
contract basis. Unlike his athletes, he knows not all are so sure what his ambitions are, or whether they can be
achieved. Among his first challenges is to "transform" the Quality Assurance Inspectorate (QAI). "People
see a great deal of value in it but it does not get to enough schools quickly enough." Currently, it would take two
decades to visit all schools. He is close to being ready to implement a four-year model, which will involve shorter
inspections and more preparation on the part of schools. Implementing the Scolar report, Action Plan to Raise Language
Standards in Hong Kong, is another big item on his agenda. He will also be seeking to influence the examinations system,
which he says is beginning to set different types of questions that don't merely test the accumulation of
knowledge. "But the perception is that that change is not as rapid as curriculum reform. I am trying to influence
that, but that has to be counterbalanced by confidence in the system." The community needs to know that an A-level
taken in 2003 represents similar value to that taken in 1993. He believes functional English is of crucial importance to
Hong Kong if it is to have an interface with the rest of the world. Teachers have their responsibilities, as do
learners. But parents also have a role. Much, for instance, can be achieved if parents read books to very young
children, he says.
As the most senior expatriate working in the EMB, he has become a natural focus for the native English-speaking
teachers (NETs), perceived as the man who should understand and fix their woes. Some have been disappointed he has not
been able to do that and have even accused him of becoming yet another invisible and ineffective bureaucrat. From
Wardlaw's perspective, though he takes an interest in the NET schemes, overseen by one of his team in the QAI, he
tries not to become bogged down in NET issues. He points out that NETs are managed by their principals, not the EMB.
"There are 850 NETs in Hong Kong and 15,000 English language teachers. We know clearly who is going to make the
difference," he says. "Some NETs over claim for themselves and take too much responsibility. They can add
value but are one part of the jigsaw." Their success, he says, is largely determined by how well they can work with
the people around them, namely their English panel chairs and principals. Given his position, it is not surprising he
remains more optimistic than many NET teachers. "I go to schools every week. I see a lot happening, more happening
than people imagine, though one can still argue it needs to be more rapid," he says. Like NETs, he wants to see
more active classrooms. He talks of having recently visited a school which has revamped its timetable allowing for
50-minute rather than the usual 35-minute lessons.
"The difference was quite extraordinary. It was more relaxed, the teachers less rushed. One of the things about
language learning is that students need longer periods of time to create, to learn, to experiment and take risks with
all that nice pedagogy we talk about," he says. "It is a simple thing to achieve in a school, to create space
for learning."
Though language is a key focus of learning here, it should also be a channel for widening children's horizons.
"It won't hurt us to focus on language if we learn a lot of things with it," he says. But he is realistic
as to how much he can achieve. It is the runner who in the end determines if he or she will win their race. Principals,
he says, are the key to change and are more likely to learn from other principals, not from bureaucrats. "But we
have to find ways to assure other school leaders it is not that big a step to make these decisions." Longer
periods, splitting classes into smaller groups, more co-teaching, more parent involvement - these are some of the
changes he would like to encourage. He believes these are achievable. "I don't feel a sense of doom and gloom.
I am, essentially, an optimistic person," he says. "One of the great things high performance sport has taught
me is that your capacity is essential to your improvement. Teachers have to believe that." Coming from overseas,
Wardlaw sees the challenges Hong Kong faces from a fresh perspective. "Hong Kong teachers and principals feel very
similar pressures to teachers across the world," he says. "It is the same in Australia, because the community
is making greater demands on levels of learning." But Hong Kong, for him, has still been an "unbelievable
challenge". He has had to understand the many layers of civil service bureaucracy, for a start.
"I feel like an outsider some times, and insider most of the time. It is a good position to be in as I can say
what I want, which is what people expect me to do." From that position, he can also see what does and doesn't
make sense. Wardlaw changes at lightening speed from runner to official, ready for his next meeting. "I am, at the
end of the day, a Hong Kong bureaucrat," he says. But the key to doing that well is no different to that of being a
good teacher, or coach, or marathon runner - knowing what can and can't be done. His next personal goal is to take
part in next year's 100-km Trailwalker. When he is "extremely buoyant" he believes he can finish that
most daunting of mountain races in a record-breaking 12 hours. At other times, he sets his sights on just completing the
course.
"It depends on the team I end up with. I would do what I need to do with the team," he says.
[AIW [Asia Africa Intelligence Wire]] |
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