Develop Hong Kong’s young minds to think creatively
- City should take steps to foster student development as Pisa ranks Hong Kong below the international average, and far behind top-ranked Singapore, on creative thinking
Thinking outside the box is not just an essential problem-solving hack. By questioning the conventional and offering the alternative, creative thinking enhances resilience and adaptation, and drives innovation and betterment for humankind.
Amid an increasingly complex and competitive global environment, societies stand to gain by fostering such skills among the people, especially the younger generation.
It was therefore worrying that Hong Kong students did not rank favourably in terms of creativity in a global study. According to tests in 2022 by the Programme for International Student Assessment, Pisa, the city scored 32 overall, just below the international average of 33. It was way behind Singapore’s 41 at the top. The tests covered students’ abilities to generate, evaluate, improve and communicate ideas, as well as their social and scientific problem-solving abilities. At least 16 of the 64 other places in the study fared better than Hong Kong.
The outcome is perhaps not surprising, given the city’s notorious rote learning and exam-oriented education culture. It rose two spots to seventh place in science, and maintained fourth place in maths. But the reading scores slipped one rank to 11th, the worst performance since the assessment was introduced in 2000. The good news is that the city outranked others in terms of education equity, meaning family background and socio-economic status have “minimal bearing” on student performance. But the inadequacies in creative thinking does raise questions whether the city could nurture talent for a knowledge- and innovation-based economy in future.
We hope the government will not settle for less when it says the findings showed students’ performance in creative thinking was on par with the international average. While the city can pride itself on providing all students with equal education opportunities, there is certainly much room for improvement. It is good that officials will draw reference from the findings to further nurture students’ creative thinking and other generic skills, and build a solid foundation for their whole-person development and lifelong learning. At stake is not just ensuring the younger generation in the world is equipped for survival, but also the competitiveness of a creative Hong Kong.
