The future of Education in Hong Kong

Professor Ruth Hayhoe, Director of The Hong Kong Institute of Education, was the Foundation's guest speaker on 24 November 1998. This is a summary of her remarks.

I have been intimately involved in a visioning process for our Institute, and this has involved looking into the future, the early part of the 21^st century and imagining what kind of education we would like to see.

I think the first basic principle that has struck us is the need to begin with each and every child, to begin with a belief that each child has unique potential in different areas, intellectual, aesthetic, physical, social, moral. It is up to the teacher to identify the unique constellation of ability in each child under their care, and provide conditions for it to develop in a natural and unforced way.

The experiences that children have in their earliest learning experience outside the family, in kindergarten or nursery school, are likely to shape their attitudes towards learning throughout their lives. Thus early childhood education has the greatest potential leverage in terms of raising the quality of all of Hong Kong's people.

I think there are a number of things about early learning that are particularly important. The first is that natural inclinations are identified and encouraged, and the process of learning is a kind of blossoming, a joyful and natural process, rather than a pressurized and painful process. The second is that children learn to observe and understand their own learning process - to be self aware as they learn, and to experience the empowerment that comes as they put forward their own theories, test them through dialogue, play, experimentation or observation, and come to grasp basic principles of how the world around them functions. The term megacognition is often used for this self-awareness in the learning process. In this kind of learning process, children will experience the satisfaction that comes with understanding basic principles, and gain a foundation very early in their lives for lifelong learning. They will become literally addicted to learning - unable to tolerate the passing of a single day without the satisfaction of deepening their understanding and knowledge.

The first basic principle that has struck us is the need to begin with a belief that each child has unique potential in different areas, intellectual, aesthetic, physical, social, moral.

There has been a strong tendency for education systems in Asia to be shaped from the top down, through a kind of pyramidal pattern which is shaped by the examination system determining entry to university. All parents want their children to enjoy the prestige and potential social status that comes from university education, and so university entry examinations determine the secondary school curriculum and the kinds of activities that are valued in the secondary school, and even the primary school curriculum. All those who are not likely to enter university, either because their intellectual potential was not identified and encouraged at an early age or because their talents lie in areas not highly valued by the university, such as the creative arts, physical education, and various technical fields, are likely to feel marginalized and unimportant. There is little satisfaction or reward for the development of their talents through the school system, only a sense of failure when they complete their schooling.

Hong Kong's commitment to a nine-year basic edcuation, and the protection of primary education through the unified secondary allotment system prevents the worst of these pressures upon primary education. However, the five bands for secondary education are now more and more clearly known to students and parents, due to the freedom of information act, and it is difficult for those assigned to Band Four and Five schools to escape the sense of having been labelled as inferior. Form four to form seven, the four years after compulsory education, tend to be entirely dominated by the Certificate of Education and A-Level examination systems, leaving students who do not score well at either of these levels believing themselves to be a failure in the eyes of their parents and those around them. In reality, they should feel satisfaction and empowerment in relation to the subjects they have learned effectively, even if they have not reached the standards demanded by the university. I can only hope that these issues of structure and examination systems will be addressed in the review of the education and examination systems now underway by two sub-committees of the Education Commission.

Almost every child in Hong Kong will be taught by a teacher who has graduated from the Hong Kong Institute of Education, whether this be at kindergarten, primary or lower secondary level. Other tertiary institutions in Hong Kong make a very important contribution to teacher education and research at higher levels and in specialist niche areas, but we are the only institution which has the potential of reaching out to each and every child through the teachers that are formed here and then go out into kindergartens and schools in all parts of Hong Kong. This is both a great privilege and a huge responsibility.

We have been entrusted with remarkable facilities and resources that should enable us to transform the education process for all children from the bottom up. I hope we can contribute to a revolution that raises the quality of all Hong Kong citizens to a level appropriate to Hong Kong's role as a special administrative region of China and a major international city in the Asia Pacific and in the world community.

The above does not necessarily represent the views of the Foundation.