Students sleeping in lecture halls at universities has become so widespread that an educators' union has called for joint government efforts to revive youngsters' interest in learning.
Shum Kar-ping, of the Federation of Higher Education Staff Associations, an umbrella group for staff associations at all of the universities, said a joint approach by various government departments such as the Education Department and the Culture and Recreation Department was needed.
'Students are more interested in gossip about pop stars than academic pursuits,' said Professor Shum, a mathematics professor at Chinese University for 30 years.
Fewer students aspired to the intellectual pleasures of university education. 'They don't take part in extracurricular activities and many at the primary or secondary school level have no respect for teachers.'
Yesterday, Lingnan University president, Edward Chen Kwan-yiu, put the blame of deteriorating student standards on problems in primary and secondary education. He said during a radio programme that he planned to discuss with other university heads how to improve students' attitudes.
'Students have much less respect for teachers now than in those days when I was in university. There are inadequate resources for primary and secondary education. School graduates are not ready for university education while the number of places has been vastly expanded since the late 1980s.
