A post-colonial education system for HK

Hong Kong will reform its educational system to make it more responsive to the needs of the economic powerhouse in the post- colonial era. Yojana Sharma reports for Inter Press Service.

HONG KONG: The appointment of an international banker to head Hong Kong's task force on educational policy in the post-colonial era speaks volumes about the territory's aims to remain a bustling economic hub.

Antony Leung was named to the post earlier this year by Tung Chee-hwa, the first post-colonial chief executive. Himself educated in Hong Kong, Britain and the United States, Tung brought Leung into his inner Cabinet and tasked him to prepare proposals on the direction for Hong Kong's education system after the handover.

Not surprisingly, Leung says Hong Kong's education system must ensure that its economy remains globally competitive.

In essence, the aim is to move away from a colonial system geared toward creating an English-speaking, civil service elite, to entrepreneurial, self-starting international businessmen and women fluent in several languages that can keep Hong Kong ahead in what it does best -- international commerce.

Tung, a shipping magnate, and Leung, a director of Chase Manhattan Bank with banking experience in the United States and Asia, are themselves the models of what they want the typical, educated Hong Kong person to look like a decade or two hence.

Hong Kong's education system, which has had to absorb huge influxes from mainland China, has been criticized for failing to provide the kind of graduates Hong Kong businesses require as the territory makes the transition from a manufacturing economy to a hub for services.

The standard of English is declining, students show little personal initiative, and creativity is lacking. While the economy grew at breakneck speed and there was a labor shortage, employers had to make do with what they got. But the pressure to upgrade education to meet Hong Kong's future goals has now become more acute.

Without reform, many fear that mainland Chinese professionals, previously kept out under Hong Kong's strict immigration rules under British sovereignty, will simply move here to fill the gaps and run things their way. And, the argument runs, there is no shortage of talent in China's population of 1.2 billion, unlike Hong Kong's 6.4 million.

Leung, who is consulting with more than 100 educational experts, says the Hong Kong education system left behind by Britain is not a bad one. Hong Kong was among the top five in the Third International Math and Science Study conducted last year, which is one of the most comprehensive comparisons of education systems done internationally.

Hong Kong falls behind Japan, South Korea and Singapore, but ahead of many western countries.

Leung says he is not out to change the educational system from top to bottom. "It is definitely not a total overhaul of the present system that we need. The good aspects must be retained and reaffirmed," Leung said. "The whole point is we are entering a new era with a new government. We have the right environment to do much better."

While acknowledging that Hong Kong is part of China and children must be taught to think of themselves as Chinese, schools here must produce students who are "outward looking".

"We should clearly understand we are Chinese. We are based in Hong Kong and our eyes are firmly set on the world," Leung adds. He supports the revision of Hong Kong's textbooks to bring in a more China-oriented interpretation of history. Tung has called for more "patriotic education" to promote nationalistic feelings for China among schoolchildren, but Leung cautions "the spread of anti-foreign sentiments must be avoided in the process of decolonization".

Clearly, any hint of xenophobia is not be good for international business. "For Hong Kong to maintain its competitiveness, we need to ensure our students are biliterate and trilingual," Leung says. That means being able to read and write Chinese and English and speak and understand the local Cantonese dialect, Mandarin Chinese and English. Says Leung: "It will be difficult, but we have to do it."

The colonial administration heard constant complaints about the decline in English standards, but found it politically unacceptable to be seen as promoting English in the dying days of colonial rule and amid efforts to let Hong Kong run its own affairs. So the focus was on teaching of the mother tongue rather than English.

Leung talks about the importance of information technology and computers in every school, but also voices concerns about creativity, initiative and life-long learning which are similar to the rest of Asia. Taiwan and Singapore are already much further ahead and are already implementing their own reforms.

"We have to teach students how to learn rather than memorize textbooks because the textbook might be out of date in a few years," notes Leung. "With new information being generated at a rapid pace and the half-life of old knowledge very short -- 10 years or less -- students have to study continuously all their lives. They must learn how to learn."

In commerce, information is power, and Hong Kong cannot afford to be out of date if it wants to adapt to rapid changes. This will mean more project work in schools rather than rote learning, which will need a change in the examination system. It will also mean an end to bisessional schools, where one set of children uses the classroom in the morning and another set uses it in the afternoon.

Bisessional schools, which Tung says makes adequate education impossible, are a legacy of expensive land in Hong Kong and the British-led administration's reluctance to provide huge land grants for schools.

The aims and dilemmas faced by Hong Kong's new rulers are not that different from the old, but the desire to break from the past may well force the pace of change. "I feel a great sense of urgency," says Leung. "Without changes within a few years, Hong Kong will begin to slip down in the international economic league."

-- IPS