As Hong Kong’s busy children return to schools, time to rethink the point of education

Hong Kong’s schools are set to reopen on a phased basis in a week or so. That is good news indeed, especially for parents, who have had to shoulder more responsibilities with their children learning from home. In addition to a perhaps new-found appreciation for teachers, Hongkongers can breathe a sigh of relief now that we seem to have Covid-19 under control.

Understandably, some educators and parents are worried that students – especially those in critical years who have academic qualification tests to take and scores to worry about – not being able to catch up.

It has been the norm for Hong Kong students to spend almost every waking hour engaged in the task of joyless learning – at school, at tuition centres, and at home with homework. We are a city obsessed with “winning at the starting line”. With the focus on training our students to stay ahead of every curve, falling behind is not an option.

Parents would pay whatever they can afford to make sure their children beat everyone else’s. And all this begins at a ridiculously young age – there are interview coaching classes for little ones who really should be playing full-time. But what seemed to be preparing our students for the cutthroat competition of the “real world” has unfortunate repercussions.

Study after study has pointed to the obvious: that our students are in distress. By 2015, the rise in student suicides had alarmed even our lawmakers, prompting a special education panel and legislators to suggest that schools put greater emphasis on non-academic achievements.

This fact – that our children are not OK – is not news. It’s tragic and remains a problem. Our education system has its share of problems. The liberal studies curriculum, for instance, has been blamed for supposedly playing a role in Hong Kong’s months-long protests. But that is a topic for another day.

What most people can agree on is that our education system has become so obsessed with academic performance that the stress placed on our students is enormous. There is very little self-satisfaction that can be derived from a system that piles on the pressure when children reach nursery age.

Hong Kong parents: stop pushing your children to win at all costs

Being taught to win at all costs is detrimental to our children’s development. When the importance of teaching and nurturing kindness and empathy is neglected, it is no wonder that they find happiness and contentment so unattainable.

Hong Kong’s education system needs a complete overhaul, from how we prioritise what we teach our children, to how they are taught, to the weight given to exam and test scores.

They say that crises are opportunities in disguise. Now may be the time for all of us to do right by our children. Being competitive to the point of breaking our children and ourselves, and suffering from a whole slew of mental health issues must be the absolute worst we can do to our children.

Instead, teaching them to be kind and considerate would equip them with the tools to be more resilient – the pathways to their success in the future.

Covid-19 has forced us to confront uncomfortable truths and rethink how we live our lives. The message that we are “stronger together” has resonance across borders. Now, is the point of education to get ahead at all costs? There must be room to learn to connect, understand, empathise with and care for others.

Cheer our children on to – in the words of the late Dr Maya Angelou – “be the rainbow in someone’s cloud”, because it is worth infinitely more than any pot of gold.

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA