Senior Hong Kong students believe secondary school curriculum fails them, survey finds
Alliance for Children Development Rights researchers say the government should move away from putting emphasis on academic scores
Almost 70 per cent of students do not think the secondary school curriculum can allow them to develop their talents and interests, a survey of 214 senior secondary school pupils has found.
Ninety per cent of this group felt the curriculum focused too much on academic scores, while 69 per cent felt unhappy about what they considered to be a spoon-feeding system of teaching.
Researchers from the Alliance for Children Development Rights said the results showed the curriculum had failed to achieve its target of being diversified and catering to students’ different abilities.
Although the curriculum included academic-oriented and skill-based subjects, teaching and assessment focused on academic subjects, thus discouraging students from taking up applied learning, the researchers said.
The survey, conducted between June and August, found 88 per cent of respondents wanted to further their study after secondary school, but one in three believed they could not develop their talents through tertiary education.
This was largely due, they said, to a lack of tertiary places and because they did not receive any teaching in subjects in which they took an interest.