Educating for an Entrepreneurial City

Heather Du Quesnay
Second Opinion
Next Magazine 2010-03-18

Hong Kong kids need more than processing skills to make it in the modern world. They have to be able to solve problems by working in teams, to share resources and materials, to express themselves using modern media. They need to build their confidence by playing music, acting, debating, and taking on leadership roles.

I came to Hong Kong five years ago to run the English Schools Foundation(ESF). From the start I was spell-bound by the beauty of the city. After the most difficult of days, I could step out of my office, then on Stubbs Road, and lose myself in the bowl of jewels that was Happy Valley at seven o'clock in the evening.

The can-do culture is a joy to an incoming Brit. I wanted a silver ring to match a necklace I had been given when I left my last job.'We'll have it in your size in two hours.''You need a book-case?''We'll deliver it and put it up for you tomorrow.'

Hong Kong is amazingly effective also in educating its children. When the Organisation for Economic Development does its PISA(Programme for International Assessment) tests, Hong Kong is regularly near the top. Hong Kong kids can calculate and perform maths functions faster than a machine. And their brains, wired over generations to learn full-form Chinese characters, are fast, sharp, spatially aware; they're learning from the cradle to make deals and to be good at business, whether it's investment banking or hawking goods in the street.

But processing skills are no longer enough. Modern, developed societies are recognising the importance of educating their young to be curious, inventive, intuitive and questioning. Kids need to be able to solve problems by working in teams, to share resources and materials, to express themselves using modern media. Kids need to build their confidence while in school by playing music, acting, debating, and taking on leadership roles(in the class, in the sports team, in the house or the Student Council).

My impression from talking to parents, teachers and university lecturers is that some local schools still see a culture of top-down teaching and compliance as the ideal. No doubt when classes had more than 40 students in small classrooms that was necessary. But it is neither necessary nor appropriate now, if Hong Kong is to grow its children into Asia's world citizens, equipped with the skills, qualities and confidence to make Hong Kong a hub of entrepreneurial enterprise to match its successes in finance and trade.

The government has invested its money and its hopes in the senior secondary reforms. Parents don't understand them. The government needs to work even harder to explain these changes to parents and convince them that 334, Liberal Studies, the freeing up of the medium of instruction and the rest of the package will work for their children. It's urgent; the changes have already started.

As it redesigns the system, government needs to look at how things work from top to bottom. For too long smart, savvy Hong Kong kids have been turfed out of school after Form 5, forced like beggars to go in search of a Form 6 place. What a waste of teen-age talent at a time when the birth rate is among the lowest in the world! Will Asia's world city find university places for all who have earned them when the reforms are implemented in 2012?

Early years education needs attention too. The introduction of kindergarten vouchers two years ago was something, but the sector remains a Cinderella. It is under-valued and neglected in some respects, but madly over-regulated when it comes to teacher qualifications to the extent that Hong Kong risks driving good teachers away. Creativity and confidence begin when we are very young, not when we get to secondary school.

And government could be doing a lot more to build partnerships with the excellent international and local ESF schools right here in its midst. Children who are well educated in Hong Kong schools are increasingly staying on at Hong Kong universities; at least that is the ESF experience. These young people are part of a new Hong Kong generation, born and raised here, speaking at least some Chinese, committed to Hong Kong and bursting with entrepreneurial potential. These youngsters are Hong Kong's future; we need to value them.

Heather Du Quesnay is the Chief Executive Officer of ESF. She has lived in Hong Kong for five years. Before coming to Hong Kong, she was the founding Chief Executive of the National College for School Leadership in England.