THE TIME FOR ACTION has arrived. After two years of deliberation and consultation, the Education Commission has proposed sweeping reforms of Hong Kong's education system. Now implementation can begin in earnest.
The final blueprint - Learning For Life, Learning Through Life, which commission chairman Antony Leung Kam-chung presented to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa on Thursday - brings to a close a period of unprecedented soul-searching into the woes of our education system. Few will disagree with the idealism underlying its recommendations.
'Life-long learning and all-round development' is the reforms' mantra. But there is nothing particularly revolutionary in this. Countries across the world are striving for the same, so some people might see Hong Kong as doing little more than responding to international trends.
The commission has identified serious but obvious weaknesses that undermine the quest for life-long learning, including the often-repeated criticism that exam-driven learning by rote keeps young people from learning to think independently.
Hong Kong's best schools do produce high-performing students. But the success of the few is built on the failure of the many, according to the commission. 'School life is usually monotonous. Students are not given comprehensive learning experiences and have little room to think, explore and create,' the report says.
The proposed solutions are all-embracing: reforming academic structures, curricula and assessment mechanisms, from pre-school to higher and continuing education.