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SCMP Reporter

Emphasis on exams can be bad for students
Earlier this month there was news of two more tragic deaths linked to our flawed education system (''Cheerful' student, 14, leaps from balcony', January 7, and 'Girl who just turned 15 jumps to her death', January 9).
Some adults have argued that children nowadays have difficulty coping with the education system.
Some youngsters, they say, opt for suicide as it seems to be an easy way out and a solution to their problems.
I think this issue requires a more sensible and in-depth analysis.  In some cases, teenage suicides are associated with performance at school.
Hong Kong's poor education system focuses too much on students' academic results.  Exams are the sole method by which a school measures how much pupils have learned.
This forces students to work hard to get high marks in their exams. If they fail to  achieve good grades they often  become depressed about their academic performance.
With this narrow focus, schools are not offering young people the opportunity to discover abilities in other areas, such as  sport, art and music, and other aspects of culture.
Over the past 10 years our education system has undergone a number of reforms.
However the problems with the system that I have described have not been addressed.
Perhaps it is important now to have a rethink about shifting our focus, so we do not concentrate solely on  students' academic results.
Fiona Wong Hei-man, Tseung Kwan O
Syllabus is far too narrow
I refer to Philip Yeung's article ('Subprime learning', January 6) in which he expressed concern about the teaching of English in Hong Kong.
What he described reminded me of my experience when I studied for my AS-level Use of English exam.
The current curriculum features a heavily skill-oriented teaching and learning approach. It is aimed at 'developing' different language skills which employers expect.
The principal reason Hong Kong students 'avoid English like the plague' is because of the syllabus and the belief behind that syllabus that the acquisition of skills is equal to learning a language well.
Students are instructed to learn a language by repeatedly doing mock papers or seeking help from tutorial centres to memorise occasionally-used phrases to impress markers in written exams.
Hardly anyone is questioning this syllabus.
However, you really learn a language when you look at all its aspects. Teachers should be looking beyond the syllabus and focusing on, for example, western  culture as they relate to such things as cuisine, etiquette and celebrities.
In this way they can maintain the interest of students so that they want to keep learning the language.
Students are left to acquire an appreciation of English-language movies and novels on their own.
Teachers should be actively demonstrating the use of daily English and showing how it is not detached from society.
It is not difficult to see why every year an increasing number of students avoid such a wider learning process as they do not see it as being part of the syllabus and feel it will not be marked in their exams.
Regarding the latest fine-tuning of the education system, perhaps education chiefs should be trying to develop in students an attitude of sustained learning of the language.
Alex Yeung, Tai Wai
Counselling  not the answer
Many people argue nowadays that more counselling should be available for youngsters in order to help them deal with the pressure that they are under and enable them to  cope with problems.
No counselling in schools was made available to previous generations of students in Hong Kong.
However, young people still seemed to be able to cope with the pressures.
The problems they faced were little different from today - the need to do well academically and parents' high expectations.
It seemed to be easier for the youngsters from that era to treasure everything that they had, even though they had less than the young people today.
A bowl of rice would cheer them up. They would talk about their plans for a better life.
Our young people are now living in a more affluent society and perhaps do not realise how lucky they are.
I urge them to look at the world with a fresh perspective and  be satisfied with what they have.
Michael Leung Chung-hong,  Sham Shui Po
Squandering opportunities
I refer to the letter from Simon Appleby ('HK will benefit from visa rule', January 5) about liberalising visa requirements to Hong Kong for Shenzhen residents.
Hong Kong will also benefit  from revising the requirements for nationals from Bangladesh and Nepal as they  no longer enjoy  freedom of entry.
Trade between Hong Kong and Nepal  used to be buoyant, especially exports from Hong Kong of gold, silver and electrical goods.  Since the SAR government  introduced visa restrictions, Nepal's business people cannot easily enter  and trade  is near zero.
Business people don't always plan ahead other than for fairs. They might want to make a trip at short notice. But given the visa restrictions, those entrepreneurs from Nepal and Bangladesh find it easier to go directly to the mainland.  There are even direct flights now from Guangzhou.
For Bangladesh, a country that acts as a substantial manufacturing base for Hong Kong businesses, the cheapest flight access to China is now via Kunming, then overland to Guangzhou.
In these troubled economic times, this kind of discrimination must end.
Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong
No justification
I refer to the letter by Michael Cheung ('Citybus entitled to refuse request', January 13).
I don't see  how  going off on a different angle  regarding HIV rates and  putting forward the extremist view that people can be 'cured' of homosexuality has anything directly to do with why  the company refused to allowing the hiring of one of its buses  [for a gay  parade].
It is purely a case of discrimination on Citybus's part and I very much doubt many would have taken the view that had the bus been used, that it was a direct endorsement of gay life.
Comparing this would be similar to complaining that advertising condoms on the sides of buses encourages risky sexual behaviour and that bus companies would seem to support this too.
Andrew Haviland, Kowloon Tong
Human shields
I do not justify the killing of children or innocent people but to be fair to the Israelis we should think about who started all this.
In the Arab world women are treated like second-ranked citizens but the coward 'warriors' of Hamas take cover behind their skirts and use them as human shields.
They do the same with their children  in schools and train young people to become suicide bombers. And they put forward a message of hate with their broadcasts on Palestinian television.
Jeffry Kuperus, Clear Water Bay



Letters