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Opinion | Hong Kong’s future leaders need an education system fit for challenging times
- Graduates should be equipped with more than skills and knowledge – they must be creative problem-solvers capable of innovative thinking and working in teams
- They must also learn to prioritise the needs of the community over individual freedom and understand how to deal with ‘fake news’
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It seems that normality in any form will be difficult to achieve in Hong Kong. The city is still experiencing the aftermath of the social and political unrest of 2019 and Covid-19 continues to drive our lives, even with a declining caseload.
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These two years of disruption have often been dispiriting and at times despairing. At the same time, however, they highlight the need for a resilient education system. Such a system should not only respond to events but lead the way in finding solutions.
Ensuring such a system is in place should be a priority for the Hong Kong government and recognised as a key contribution to the development of the city’s young people.
It should be understood from the start that the education system in Hong Kong has much of which it can be proud. Its students make their presence felt in international tests and its universities achieve high rankings internationally.
Some Hong Kong parents seeking a better education for their children do so because they have the resources to pay for international schools or to send them overseas, or indeed to move overseas themselves. But these options are not available to most families in the city, and it is for them that the city’s education system must excel.
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Seven students achieve perfect scores in Hong Kong's university entrance exams
Seven students achieve perfect scores in Hong Kong's university entrance exams
There is great deal of advice on future education from bodies such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills to McKinsey’s recent report, “Defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work”. The need to consider the future is important and it should certainly include skills, but it needs to include more if young people are to confront the multiple challenges ahead.
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