Pressure points
Are schools becoming the vibrant learning centres they're meant to be? Linda Yeung takes a look at what a decade of changes has yielded
Throughout Jojo's last two years at an elite primary girls' school, her mother would devote the entire month before any major exam to helping her study every evening, even devising quizzes for her to do. This was done to ensure Jojo could advance to the secondary section of the school, says her mother, who would only give her name as Yiu.
Jojo is now in Form Two. But making the cut in Hong Kong's intensively competitive education system has come at a price. Although she loved badminton and was a committed player, Jojo was not allowed to continue in the school club after one year. In her primary school, only pupils who excelled academically, or outstanding athletes, were chosen to join school clubs.
I realised that there was no happy learning when I was in Secondary Four
This tough reality runs contrary to the spirit behind wide-ranging education reforms that have been rolled out over the past decade to encourage happy and independent learning.
The plans were outlined in Learning for Life, Learning through Life, an Education Commission paper released in 2000. The panel, led by then Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, envisioned a series of changes for young people's all-round development to meet the needs of the 21st century.
Under this blueprint, students would be "capable of lifelong learning, critical and exploratory thinking, innovating and adapting to change", have the confidence to work independently as well as with a team. A key priority was to enable young people to enjoy learning, developing their creativity and sense of commitment.