A secondary school opens 24 virtual classrooms on the Internet. The principle shares his attitude towards adversity on the first day of the school year.

In the midst of the epidemic, the 20/21 school year starts today, and all schools in Hong Kong are "starting school but not going back to school". The CNEC Lau Wing Sang Secondary School in Chai Wan has specially organised an online school opening ceremony by setting up 24 online virtual classrooms, and the reporter saw at the school site that the national flag was already flying on the flagpole. In the classroom, two class teachers assisted each other with the pre-set timetable for roll-call and explanation of the day's procedures.

In the video, the Principal, Mr Lam Tat-ho, and the preacher delivered speeches on stage, sharing their attitudes and ways of facing adversity. Mr Lam pointed out that he had learnt from past experience that a pre-recorded video would be smoother than a real-time online ceremony when a number of classes were being taught at the same time. Therefore, he had been shooting the video non-stop for a month, and laughed that the school had turned into an educational television station during that period of time, which could also be used as an exercise for the whole school to attend online classes at the same time.

With a new class in a new school year, the biggest headache for teachers at the start of an online school year is how to establish a teacher-student relationship with their students. Chan Kwok Shing, who has been teaching in the school for ten years, said that it is cold to communicate with students only through computer screens and telephones, so they will try their best to add interactive elements in lessons, such as asking students to "turn on the microphone" to answer questions and engage in dialogues.

Mr Lam added that considering the different backgrounds of the students, they are not required to turn on the camera during lessons. Asked how to ensure that students will not be distracted by the computer, he said that the main focus is on trust, and teachers will make use of different types of learning software to interact with students during lessons. In addition, the school has formed an "e-learning group" for teachers to exchange good online teaching methods, which is "more important than purchasing equipment".