Hong Kong education chiefs stamp out study drills in city’s kindergartens
Revised curriculum puts emphasis on ‘play and free exploration’ to foster holistic development
Hong Kong’s education authorities are taking steps to stop kindergartens from using study drills, with new rules to discourage writing assignments for children during their first year of schooling.
Mechanical copying and calculations will also be discouraged in the second and final year of kindergarten under a revised set of guidelines released by the Education Bureau on Monday.
The “Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide”, a revision of the 2006 version, puts emphasis on fostering children’s holistic development by learning through “play and free exploration”, according to the Bureau’s 115-page directive.
The bureau highlighted stipulations that kindergartens should not assign writing tasks in the first year of learning, while mechanical copying and calculations should not be given to those in the second and final year of kindergarten.
The revised framework also includes concrete recommendations to bridge the gap between kindergartens and primary schools, such as delaying dictation and written tests for one semester in Primary One, so that students will have more time to adjust to a new school environment.
“We hope that young children will not be subjected to additional stress and unnecessary drilling,” said Dr Anna Hui Na-na, the curriculum guide’s Ad hoc Committee chairperson.