NEARLY 1,000 alumi gathered at Shenzhen Experimental School on Sunday, from Shenzhen and around China, to mourn the death of their respected principal — Jin Shiru — who died of an illness Saturday at the age of 75, the Daily Sunshine reported.

The death of Jin has aroused waves of grief among the education circles in Shenzhen as the deceased principal was regarded as one of the most important education pioneers, who had helped build the city’s education up from nothing over the last three decades.

Jin was born in Shanghai in 1943 and came to Shenzhen in 1984 to take on the role as the vice principal at Shenzhen Binhe Middle School. He was one of the first new comers to explore the education path for the newly created special economic zone.

Jin helped to establish Shenzhen Experimental School during his second year in Shenzhen. From an office with only 6 square meters of space, Jin built up the school that has enjoyed a good reputation in Shenzhen, in China and gradually overseas.

Over 1,000 alumni of the school attended the memorial service Sunday morning. Many had come back to Shenzhen from other cities and some alumni who are living abroad asked their parents to present flowers for them. Some retired teachers from the school also attended to show their respect for the former principal.

According to teachers from Shenzhen Experimental Kindergarten, under the Shenzhen Experimental Education Group, the last time they saw Jin was at a cultural lecture he gave for the kindergarten’s teaching faculty.

One of the teachers recalled that Jin had walked into the lecture room with the help of a young teacher. He appeared thin and fragile, and all of his hair was gray. All of the teachers attended the lecture and gave a standing ovation as Jin slowly entered the room. Many were so deeply moved that they were brought to tears.

The principal was greatly respected for his devotion to his school and students. His far-sighted education philosophy inspired many over the past few decades. “Many ideas that are now widely advocated were actually put into practice by Principal Jin,” said Cheng Guanghu, an education supervising officer with the Futian District Education Bureau.

Just as Cheng noted, Jin’s ideas for education were very advanced at the time. As early as 1985 when the school was built, Jin realized the big impact astronomical activities would have on students learning science.

It was at the time when Halley’s Comet would return, after 60 years. Although the school was short on funds at the time, Jin squeezed a sum of money out of the school budget to purchase an advanced telescope made in Japan, so students could explore the night’s sky. The school later worked with a research institution at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing, which produced astronomical instruments, to build an observatory inside the school.

“After so many years, I am still very confident in Shenzhen. I have always wanted to stay at school since the day I came to the city, because this is all I want to do in my life,” Jin once said.

Jin’s successor Cao Yanqing said the former principal’s death put him and others in great sorrow. “Principal Jin had always adopted rigorous and standardized administration approaches when managing the school and we have inherited many of his management culture and methods,” said Cao.  (Zhang Qian)