High-handed methods are not the way to go in education, says the incoming principal of an elite boys’ school in Hong Kong that came under the spotlight last year after some of its students chanted pro-independence slogans.

Communication was key to handling students who expressed their own opinions or demands, said Dion Chen, whose appointment as the next principal of Ying Wa College was announced by the school management committee on Friday.

“First, we need to understand students, as after all, young people have their own ideas,” Chen, 41, said.

Chen, now the principal of YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College, will take up the post at Ying Wa College in the next school year, starting in September.

In an interview with Apple Daily, he said it was both an honor and a challenge to serve at the historic school, and stressed that it was important to communicate with students to understand their ideas.

“It’s always best to seek redress than to put a barrier to something,” Chen said, adding that the school would work to understand students and sort out differences between them. Just “saying no” would not solve any problems, nor was it the right way to educate the younger generation, he said.

Last June, some students belonging to a localist group staged a rally during recess at Ying Wa College. Dozens chanted pro-independence slogans and sang the anti-government movement anthem, “Glory to Hong Kong.” Principal Allan Cheng warned at the time that disciplinary action would be taken against them.

Politics is not the only challenge Chen will have to tackle, as schools are facing a wave of dropouts amid the persistent pandemic and the social unrest driving Hongkongers to move abroad.

Around 50 students quit Ying Wa College last year, the school said. Chen said the trend of dropouts would definitely affect the school, but that it was a wider social issue faced by many schools.

“It’s like looking at the performance of a company when the whole economy is in a decline. You can’t just say one company isn’t earning enough,” he smiled.

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