Letters | Let more Hong Kong students learn through service to the people and advocacy
- More Hong Kong students should be able to apply their academic knowledge to serve those in need and join the conversation about related social issues
University education tends to focus on academic subjects, and tends to give limited attention to skills in dealing with real-world challenges. In order to bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the real world, universities have introduced service learning to their undergraduate curriculums, offering courses where students serve underprivileged groups by applying their disciplinary knowledge.
We visited a local primary school where a group of PolyU students was teaching English using innovative student-centred methods. We also learned about PolyU students’ efforts to build STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) classrooms in abandoned containers powered by solar panels.
At the end of the course, colleagues presented plans for offering new service-learning courses in our universities. In our presentations, we emphasised the importance of advocacy in the form of publicity campaigns for service learning. Students should be encouraged to write for newspapers and join the conversation about how best to serve local communities. Students with experience of serving underprivileged people in less developed countries should advance the social causes they believe in through publicity campaigns.