Government must bite bullet on education
In the letter 'Exam-oriented system stressful' (May 4), Jackie Lai condemns Hong Kong's education system for failing to help many young people develop their innate creative and intellectual abilities.
This Form 5 student identifies the overriding effects of the present system, namely the de-motivation of vast numbers of students whose experience of learning is that of 'mundane lessons' and failure. Typically, those who succeed in this system are from better resourced middle-class homes, whereas the majority of underachievers come from public housing areas.
So why don't Hong Kong teachers adopt a more proactive stand and attempt to correct the bias in the system? Why isn't schooling seen to be about redressing social disadvantage? Is it that the competitive 'social-face' culture of Hong Kong reinforces elitism at the expense of the majority? Perhaps Hong Kong's political leaders can explain why for so long education reform has been mostly cosmetic, leaving the main institutional barriers intact? Successful reform means reducing class sizes, abandoning (or at least radically de-emphasising) the exam- and textbook-driven system (especially in primary schools), as well as educating teachers and the public about new methods of teaching and classroom management. Will the government bite the bullet, or will we read more letters from the young victims of the system in years to come?
Robert Lewis, North Point
Exam system favours the rich
Ten years after the return of Hong Kong to China, one thing in our education system has remained unchanged - the highly exam-oriented system.
