Opinion | Hong Kong has the talent for the future – it’s up to our schools to nurture it

The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland recently released its annual global talent rankings. The local media made a big story out of the fact that Hong Kong has fallen from 12th to 18th place.

The report is online, and the part about Hong Kong shows that we have quite a mix of strengths and weaknesses compared to the other 63 countries and territories surveyed. We score third both in terms of female participation in the workforce and in basic educational assessment at age 15. We also do well – ranking mostly in the top 10 – as an attractive place for foreign talent. This is thanks to good pay levels, low taxes and a secure environment, despite scoring far less well in living costs and quality of life.

The big problem highlighted in the IMD report is our weakness in investing in and developing local talent – a situation that is apparently getting worse, at least relative to other economies. The report ranks Hong Kong fairly low down for expenditure on education. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor pointed out that the report may have been based on old data. The government has announced significant spending increases on all levels of education since taking office in mid-2017.

The most frequent complaint, broadly, is that our local schools are too focused on getting students to memorise facts to pass exams, rather than developing critical thinking, questioning and understanding. Evidence includes large amounts of homework even for primary-level kids, and the widespread use of private tutorial institutions.