Bishop Zen Ze-kiun may not have explicitly linked his letter 'Let's debate schools change' (November 20) with his deep concern that a change in rules would undermine the Catholic Church's ideological stake in the education it offers, but it is clear from previous articles and statements that this really is the crux of the matter.
The diocese follows a dogmatic set of values and is providing a service through which it feels it can impart these values effectively while remaining sincere to the mission it preaches.
In addition to the forces from within local education, parochial schools have connections and responsibilities to represent the religious and educational values determined by bodies unaffected by local conditions. These influences act to restrain the evolutionary trend towards education that is locally defined by examination preparation. If the links to these external authorities are severed and it becomes the diocese's opinion that the students' education is corrupted, it will be forced to re-evaluate the substantial effort it invests.
Because of the state the Hong Kong educational system is in, many parents see these parochial schools primarily as offering a superior education and not the ideological education in Catholicism that is traditionally the key motivational element. If the schools are drawing students from families with little interest or even contempt for the spiritual content, coupled with the fact that government funds are being spent, the argument that there should be a high degree of influence by the schools' constituencies seems reasonable.
Yet if greater influence leads to a diminished capacity of the diocese to see that its purpose is fulfilled, then it very well could pull out of the system, leaving a void where a once superior alternative came at the price of religious influence. The catch here is that most likely because of the paternal nature of the management and structuring of the local diocese school network, and global uniformity of both religious and educational values within the church, students at these schools are seen to be afforded a robust and diverse curriculum in comparison with many of the government and unaffiliated schools. These more easily bow to the pressures of the education system's design and wind up simply preparing students for their all-important series of examinations, with little remaining time and resources to put towards less rote and archaic educational methods.
Only by de-emphasising the role of examination results can all schools hope to improve their quality of education and public perception. All attempts at reform are futile if the only required way to advance is through focused examination. There are a number of options, and a world of examples to evaluate, but the status quo is not one of them: it has profound and far-reaching effects and restrains every aspect of reform, as the Catholic diocese is presently bearing witness.
