LIKE MANY STUDENTS, Kenneth Mui Ka-kan faced difficult choices after getting his Form Five exam results two weeks ago. His performance being mediocre, Kenneth had to decide between repeating the exams in his old school, seeking a Form Six place in a low-ranked school or study aboard. None appealed.
Kenneth is among about 25,000 students this year who scored between six and 13 points in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) - results that may allow them to scrape into Form Six but probably not enough to be a stepping stone to tertiary education in this competitive city.
Although in a quandary, he's certain he isn't ready to compete in the workforce. 'As a Form Five school leaver without work experience, all I can get are low-paid jobs as a courier or a blue-collar worker. It's not what I want,' he says.
Schoolmates with similar results have enrolled in schools such as the Institute of Vocational Education and the Chinese Cuisine Training Institute. 'But I'm not interested in vocational training,' Kenneth says. 'What I want is to return to the classroom for higher education.'
Last week, Kenneth's family breathed a sigh of relief when he secured a place in a pre-university programme in Australia. He hopes to obtain a business degree before pursuing other professional qualifications. But an overseas education is not an option for many families.
In the past three weeks, more than 5,300 school leavers have enrolled in two schemes set up by the Labour Department to provide them with basic job training, career counselling and support. The Youth Pre-employment Training Programme, now in its seventh year, caters to people aged between 15 and 24 who won't go on to tertiary education, mostly because of poor academic performance. The second offers on-the-job-training by setting up youngsters on six to 12-month stints with 12,000 employers signed up for the scheme.