Letters | Hong Kong is letting its gifted children down
- Readers discuss shortcomings in Hong Kong’s strategy for nurturing gifted pupils, and a disappointing experience at a camp for students
The Hong Kong government’s off-school support for gifted education is too unbalanced.
Under the three-tier implementation model of gifted education advanced by the Education Bureau, gifted students receive support in and outside the classroom at tiers 1 and 2 respectively. At tier 3, learning opportunities are created for exceptionally gifted students to receive specialist training outside school. Currently, the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education is a major service provider at tier 3.
The government established the Gifted Education Fund in 2016 and has injected HK$2.2 billion (US$282.19 million) into it to support the academy. The academy, established in 2007, primarily provides off-school gifted education programmes for local gifted students aged between 10 and 18. To enjoy the public resources provided by the academy, the child has to become a member, and can only do so on turning 10.
Today, not many would dispute that children should be supported from a young age. Oddly enough, while the Education Bureau adopts a loose definition of giftedness based on multiple intelligences, it seems to prefer not to identify gifted students too early and for parents of young children to work with their schools. While the academy offers programmes for parents of gifted children, most of these services are conducted in Cantonese.
The government speaks of ramping up Hong Kong’s competitiveness through talent development and retention, but it seems to be losing sight of the importance of cultivating the younger generation. The government should wake up to the fact that not all families in Hong Kong are well-off enough to support their gifted children.