LettersAre young Hongkongers slackers? Perhaps they just need to believe change is possible

Hong Kong’s average working week a few years ago was 50.1 hours, 38 per cent above the global average. Yet Alan Chow, appointed to the Curriculum Development Council’s standing committee on values education, has concerns and notes that young people are slacking off. He recently told RTHK: “They think they will never be able to buy a flat, so they spend their time on pleasure.”

To rejuvenate Hong Kong’s work ethic, he said, there was a need to emphasise “hard work” in the Values and Education Curriculum Framework guidelines, and to remove words used in an earlier Moral and Civic Education Curriculum Framework so teachers needn’t worry – words like “respect human rights” and “critical thinking”.

But will he support government policy and encourage young people to vote under the recently improved Legislative Council electoral system? Especially for candidates who promise to reverse policies that have favoured vested interests and made Hong Kong’s housing the world’s least affordable for 11 years running?